Love and Prejudice
by Sarah Maxime
Summary: This story is about the life of Remus Lupin and his friend since two years old, Sarah Milton.  Ranges in time from slightly before the Marauders' time at Hogwarts to the end of the Battle of Hogwarts.  Mostly canon when possible, except for a few changes.
1. Wolfs

**Disclaimer: All things in this story that are from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling.**

_Author's Note: I have tried to make this story clean, minus the romance. I may imply something has happened, but it will not be described. Kissing should be the only explicit romantic stuff in here._

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><p>"Mommy, can I go play with Remus?" Sarah Millton, a small five-year-old girl with long golden blond hair and startlingly bright blue eyes looked pleadingly at her mother, Mary.<p>

Sighing, Mary nodded. "Sure, Sarah. Just be careful. You never know what's running around during the full moon." She glanced outside. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Mary hurried to the door. Opening the door, she gasped, "Fen!"

A large man stood at the door. His overall appearance was reminiscent of a wolf. He had long, yellowish nails and pointy teeth of the same color. His grey-brown hair was long and matted, as was the whiskers under his chin. His grey eyes shone with a strange light. Looking at Mary, he smiled.

"Hello, Mary. It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Noticing that she seemed incapable of speaking, he gently repeated, "Mary?"

"Oh! Sorry, Fenrir. I was just so surprised. You've never visited us before," Mary said, smiling. "Come on in." Closing the door behind the man, she led him to the living room, where Sarah was watching.

"Mommy? Who is the wolf man?" Sarah asked her mother, staring at Fenrir.

Mary raised an eyebrow. "This is your father, Sarah. And why did you call him a 'wolf man'?"

Absentmindedly, Sarah said, "He looks like a wolf." She broke into a grin. "I like wolfs."

Fenrir ruffled her hair. "I like wolves, too, little one." He smiled at her. "You look a lot like your grandmother with that blond hair of yours."

Mary nudged her daughter. "Sarah, aren't you going to go play with Remus?" The little girl looked up at her and nodded violently, then ran out the door. She ran along a small trail similar to a deer track towards a small cottage in the distance. Reaching the cozy looking home, she paused as she heard a rustle up in a large oak in front of the house. Quickly, she climbed up some boards nailed onto the side of the tree until she reached a hidden platform in the center of the tree.

"Hi, Remus!" She greeted an average-sized boy with amber eyes and honey-brown hair. "Hey, guess what?" She went on without waiting for him to greet her. "My daddy came to the house! He looks like a wolf!" She giggled.

The boy grinned at her. "A wolf? How can a person look like a wolf?"

She bounced in her place as she described the strange father she had just met for the first time. "His teeth are pointy like wolf teeth, and his nails are long like wolf claws. His hair is the same color as a wolf's fur, too!"

"Can I come see your daddy? I like wolfs a lot! They're cool!" Remus paused. "I kinda wish I was a wolf. It would be fun." Sarah nodded in agreement.

"Come on, I'll show you! But," she added, "let's go to the river first. Mommy seemed like she wanted time to talk." She giggled. The two five-year-olds hurried down the tree and paused just long enough to tell Remus' parents their destination before setting off through the long grass towards a lazily weaving river not too far from the children's houses. Taking off their shoes at the riverbank, they splashed around in the shallows and made mountains with the soft, sandy dirt at the edge of the water. Soon, the sun had set, but the two children weren't scared. They loved the river at night, and the bright full moon provided plenty of light to see by. Suddenly, a large, dark shape, canine in appearance, appeared on the ridge cross the river.

"Look! It's a wolf!" Sarah cried. Giggling, she called to the creature, not noticing its snarling features. "Hi, wolfie! What are you doing here?"

"Sarah..."Remus said uneasily. "That wolf look angry..." Then, the creature leapt at him, and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain. He struggled with the wolf, its teeth clenched in the boy's shoulder. Sarah watched in horror as her best friend was attacked by a wolf, her favorite animal. She grabbed a heavy branch and swung it at the vicious beast.

"Bad wolfie! Bad wolfie!" She yelled at it as she swung the branch again. With a yelp of pain, the animal let go of its now-unconscious victim and flew through the air, landing in the river shallows. Sarah plopped next to Remus and tried to hold the blood in with her hands, not knowing what to do. The wolf scrambled to its feet and stalked toward her. Desperately, she threw herself over the little boy's body and yelled at the wolf again, "Bad!" It crept closer, its teeth gleaming in the moonlight. Then, it sniffed her foot and looked at her, suddenly calm. It gently nudged her, then bounded off into the grass and out of sight. Sarah looked at the pool of blood soaking into the ground. She pulled off Remus' shirt and bundled it against his wound, the way she had seen people do on television when someone was bleeding. The bite formed a long, thin, vaguely pointy U coming down from the top of the boy's left shoulder, and scratches laced his arms and torso.

As she sat there, voices came out of the shadows in the distance. After a minute, she realized what they were saying.

"Sarah! Remus!" It was her mother's voice! And Remus' parents were yelling, too!

"Over here!" She screamed. "Mommy! Ms. Del! Mr. John!" A human shape appeared—Remus' father, John Lupin. He gaped at the bleeding form of his son and then picked him up carefully.

"Come with me, Sarah. There's a werewolf loose tonight. We have to be careful." With that, he hurried towards the Lupin Cottage, Sarah by his side. When his wife, Delilah, and Sarah's mother, Mary saw them, they followed him and all five Apparated to St. Mungo's.


	2. Life Is Precious  Prejudice Is Not

Remus could hear footsteps going back and forth, back and forth, outside his room. The noise was keeping him awake. His eyes slowly opened, and he realized he wasn't in his bedroom. _Where am I?_ He decided he must be at his grandmother's house, and he turned over to his left to try to get back to sleep. His shoulder screamed with pain at the pressure, and he cried out.

"Remus! You're awake!" His dad hurried into the room. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Remus looked at his dad. John Lupin was a tall man, with a barely visible scar left over from his days as an Auror. Remus' father had two-day-old stubble and bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept or taken care of himself in a while.

"Dad? Where am I?"

John Lupin smiled at his son. "You're at St. Mungo's, Remus. You were attacked by a werewolf."

"A...wolf?"

"No, son, a _were_wolf. There's a difference." John hesitated, hating what he would have to tell his son. "A—a werewolf is human most of the time, but he or she turns into a wolf at the full moon. During the full moon...they try to attack humans."

Seeing the look on his son's face, John hated himself for letting Remus stay out so long during the full moon. He should have known Greyback would carry out his threat. If only he had been more careful, less concerned about his morals!

He stroked the boy's hair gently. "Don't worry, Remus. I know you're a good kid. Just because you're a werewolf doesn't mean you're not good anymore." The five-year-old smiled at his father.

"Where's Sarah?" He asked.

"She's at home. In fact," John checked his watch, "she's probably asleep right now, since it's two in the morning."

"Oh."

John ruffled the boy's hair. "Try going back to sleep, Remus. It help you get better faster." Remus nodded and turned onto his right. Soon, he was breathing gently, fast asleep. John watched his son a moment longer, then quietly left the room.

Author's Note: I apologize for the short chapter, but I couldn't find a way to lengthen it. There's also the fact that as badly wounded as Remus was, he probably would have slept a lot, since the body heals itself during sleep. Therefore, he wouldn't have been awake long. The next chapter should be longer, though.


	3. Hope and Friendship

_Awooooo!_ Eleven-year-old Sarah stared straight ahead, desperately trying to prevent the tears welling in her eyes from falling. She held her hands over her ears, uselessly trying to block out the howls of pain coming from the garage.

Through the window, a ray of sunlight peeked into the cottage, and the howls stopped. "Remus!" Sarah cried, and she burst into the garage, kneeling next to a mangled figure on the ground, heedless of the small pool of blood that soaked into the bottom of her nightgown and coated her bare feet.

Remus, gasping for breath, smiled weakly at her. "Hi, Sarah."

She looked him over, frowning. "The wolf's been upset lately. What's going on?"

Her friend sighed. "I'm worried about whether I'll get to go to Hogwarts or not. I really want to go, but I'm afraid I might not be able to."

"Aw, come on, Remus. The new headmaster is said to be a genius; surely he can find a way to let you come," the girl reassured the werewolf. "Maybe he'll even find a way to cure you!"

At that moment, John Lupin came into the garage. "Who'll find a cure for Remus, Sarah?"

She turned towards the ex-Auror. "I was thinking that since Dumbledore is said to be a genius, maybe he could find a cure for lycanthropy."

John smiled sadly. "Oh, Sarah. I really hate to burst your bubble, but it seems that lycanthropy is one of those things that has no cure."

Sarah frowned, then brightened. "Isn't the Transfiguration professor an Animagus?" John nodded. "Well, maybe she can help Remus! If she's an animal, then she can distract him!"

"Sarah, I really appreciate that you're trying to think of ways to help my son, but I'm afraid that they probably won't work. Now, come on. Remus still needs healing."

Sarah looked at her friend in alarm, suddenly noticing that the pool of blood had grown slightly. Quickly, she and John set to work healing Remus, John performing spells and Sarah helping with magical remedies. Eventually, all the injuries had been healed, and the boy was taken to his bed. In the kitchen, Delilah Lupin made chocolate milk for Sarah and coffee for John and her. The threesome sat in silence for a while, sipping their respective drink and listening to the gentle snores emanating from the bedroom nearby. Then Delilah broke the silence.

"John, we received an owl today. Dumbledore says..."She hesitated. Del knew how much her husband hated the fact that his son would likely not get to go to Hogwarts, and she was afraid to get his hopes up. "Dumbledore says that it might be possible to let Remus come to Hogwarts. He outlined his idea in the letter and suggested that we talk about it." Sarah perked up and listened intently as John spoke.

"What was Dumbledore's idea?"

"Well, he said that there's an old, abandoned shack some ways away from both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Apparently, it's rumored to be haunted, so villagers stay away, and there's a fence around it to keep students from trying to explore it. They can make a passageway to it from the Hogwarts grounds and cover the hole with a..."She looked at the letter. "A Whomping Willow."

John whistled. "A Whomping Willow? I'd have thought that would be just as bad as a werewolf, safety-wise."

"Why? What's so dangerous about a willow tree?"

"The Whomping Willow seems like a normal tree. However, when any creature, big or small, gets in range of its branches, it comes to life and attacks the trespasser. Some of its branches get so big that if they landed straight on you, you could be crushed and killed. It's also been known to put out eyes and cause injuries worth of a cat o' nine tails. It would certainly protect students from being attacked, but it would also pose a risk to them."

Delilah sipped her coffee. "If it's so dangerous, how could they excuse it being on the grounds without telling people about Remus?"

"Well, if I remember correctly, it's actually endangered. People get so scared of it that they kill it."

"How would Remus get past it, though?"

"If you press a knot near the base, it will freeze."

Sarah heard rustling upstairs and went up to check on Remus. The adults began arguing as she walked. As she came into Remus' room, the boy sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes.

"What are they arguing about?" He asked with a hint of annoyance clear in his voice. _Why do they have to be so loud?_ Sarah thought. _They're keeping Remus awake when he needs sleep!_

Aloud she said, "They received a letter from Dumbledore, the new headmaster of Hogwarts. He's figured out a way that you could come to Hogwarts, so now they're arguing about whether or not you should go. I think your mom is worried about what will happen if someone finds out."

Remus looked surprised, but happy. "I can keep a secret. Plus, you'll be there, so it won't be as bad. I won't be completely alone. I mean, we've been friends for so long—we're probably not going to stop now. Right?" He grinned at her.

"Right," she agreed. "You know, I don't know who will win without you intervening, but if you tell them you want to go, I bet they'll listen to you. You _are_ their only kid, after all." Remus nodded, so Sarah helped him out of bed and waited for him while he was in the bathroom. At one point, she heard a _bloop_ sound and cursing. _Must have dropped his toothbrush into the toilet_, she thought, laughing mentally. Eventually, he came out, and they went downstairs together.

They approached the kitchen doorway just as Delilah was saying, "John, think! What do you think will happen if someone finds out he's a werewolf? They'll hate him! He'll have to leave because parents will be scared he'll bite their children!"

"Delilah," John sounded frustrated, "I trust Remus to be able to keep a secret, particularly one as important as his. I trust Sarah to do so, as well. I don't think we'll have anything to worry about. I'll make sure Remus knows that he can't get close to anyone except Sarah, who knows and can be trusted. We simply can't pass up this opportunity, Del! It wouldn't be fair to Remus! He deserves to learn magic just as much as anyone else."

Before his mother could respond, Remus intervened. He stepped into the kitchen, his parents turning to look at him, and said, "Mom, Dad. I want to go to Hogwarts."

They looked at each other, then nodded. For the parents of an only child, especially one who would be an outcast anywhere else, the child's choice mattered a lot.


	4. Pure, Half, and Mud

Dragging his trunk behind him, Remus followed his parents as they hurried through the crowded train station. His mother's scolding floated back as they walked toward the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten.

"I _told_ you we should have left sooner! Now we might be late! Don't you ever think ahead, John?"

"Delilah, if I hadn't, do you think I would have survived my career of chasing Dark wizards?"

Sarah giggled at John Lupin's response. "I wonder how we get onto the platform?" She mused. "I certainly don't see a sign."

Her mother spoke from behind. "We're almost there." She came up behind them and whispered, "Just go through the barrier there, between platforms nine and ten. But try to do it so that Muggles don't notice." The children nodded.

Once they were all on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, they quickly said their goodbyes. The parents repeated instructions once more and helped their children get their trunks and cages on the train. As the train started to move, they all waved goodbye to each other. When the platform was out of sight, Remus and Sarah started searching for a compartment. There wasn't a single empty one, and the two eleven-year-olds were starting to get tired by the time they found a place with empty seats. The only people in it were two black-haired boys, one of which had glasses and messy hair; the other had longish hair and an aristocratic face.

"Hi! Is it okay if we sit in here?" Sarah asked the boys.

The messy-haired boy shrugged. "Sure, it's fine with me." He nudged the boy across from him with his foot. "Sirius? What do you think?"

The boy called Sirius looked at Sarah and Remus for a minute. Then he said, "Sure. I'm Sirius, and this," he pointed at the boy across from him, "is James." The werewolf and the girl put their trunks up on the rack sat on Sirius' side. As the other two boys started talking about Quidditch, Sarah leaned against the cool metal and looked out the window.

"It's some pretty scenery, isn't it?" Remus spoke softly. Sarah turned her head to look at him.

"Yes, it is. There's not much going on out there, though." She smiled at her friend.

The compartment door opened, and the occupants looked around. A small girl with long, flowing, fiery hair and emerald eyes came in, a boy with dark, unreadable eyes and slightly dirty, longish black hair behind. "Hey, is it okay if we sit in here? This is the first compartment we've found that has seats..."The girl asked, looking at those seated.

"Sure," James said to the girl. "It's fine." The two newcomers heaved their trunks up into the rack and sat down, the boy and girl introducing themselves as Severus Snape and Lily Evans, respectively.

After a minute, Remus heard the boy say to the girl, "You'd better be in Slytherin."

James turned and asked, "Slytherin?" Turning his head towards Sirius, he said, "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Sirius replied, rather glumly, "My whole family have been in Slytherin."

James reacted with some surprise. "Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!"

The other boy grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James pretended to lift a sword. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad." Severus made a small noise, and James turned on him. "Got a problem with that?"

The boy responded with a slight sneer, "No. If you'd rather be brawny rather than brainy –"

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius interjected. James roared with laughter while Lily flushed angrily, looking at the two with dislike.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Ooooo..."James and Sirius imitated her voice, and James tried to trip Severus as he went past with his trunk. "See ya, Snivellus!" Sirius called as the door slammed shut.

"You could have been nicer to them, you know," Sarah chided James and Sirius. "Everyone's entitled to his or her own opinion."

James said, somewhat miffed, "Who are you, our mother?" Sirius shuddered.

"Believe me, she's not _my_ mother," he said. "If she were _my_ mother, she'd be screaming herself hoarse at me for hoping to not get in Slytherin and associating with Muggleborns and halfbloods."

"Well, she's not here, so don't worry about it," James reassured him. Sirius shrugged.

"She'll send a Howler if I don't get in, so I'll still have to deal with her yelling. It's enough to make one go deaf."

Sarah interrupted, "The food trolley's here!"

Sirius yelled, "Foood!" And all four children hurried to the trolley.


	5. Hogwarts

Sarah got off the train with the boys from her compartment: Remus, James, Sirius, and a pudgy blond boy named Peter Pettigrew. Suddenly, a beam of light blinded her, and she heard a voice calling, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

"What _is_ that?" Squeaked Peter, staring at the gigantic man wielding the lantern that had blinded Sarah.

Remus told him, "That's Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." Peter's only response was "Oh."

The huge man herded the first years towards a glittering surface. As they got closer, Sarah realized it was water. "It's the lake!" She whispered excitedly to Remus.

Hagrid called out,"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec. Jus' round this bend here." The castle came into view, and all the first years gasped.

"Oh, it's huge," Sarah breathed. "I wish I had a camera!"

Remus bumped her arm. "I know. I can hardly believe I'm actually going to be here," he said in an undertone. "For so long, I've been afraid I would never get to see this place." Sarah pressed against him as the crowd of students squeezed together, getting as close to the water's edge as they could.

"Come on, don't be scared! No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid bellowed. Slowly, the group dispersed through the fleet of boats. Remus and Sarah ended up in a boat with Lily and Severus.

"Hi, again!" Lily greeted the two children as they climbed into the little rowboat. Sarah looked around.

"I wonder how we're going to get across. I mean, we don't know any magic yet, but there aren't any oars!" The golden-blond girl said.

Just then, Hagrid shouted, "Everyone in? Right then—FORWARD!" The little boats moved off all together, gliding across the lake surface that was as smooth as glass. Silence reigned among the new students as they stared up at the great big structure above them. It towered high into the sky as they sailed close to the cliff on which it stood.

"Head's down!" yelled Hagrid as they reached a curtain of ivy, and everyone bent their heads as the boats carried them through the leafy strands into a dark tunnel.

Finally, they reached a pebbly beach under the castle. After everyone came on shore, the group walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front doors. Hagrid banged his fist three times against the wood, and the door swung open at once. A black haired witch in emerald green robes and a black hat with a feather stood there. She had a stern face, and Remus leaned over to Sarah and whispered, "She doesn't look like someone to cross." Sarah nodded agreement.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you. I will take them from here." With that, she beckoned to the eleven-year-olds, and they followed her into the Entrance Hall.

The hall was huge. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, and the ceiling was too high to see clearly; an amazing marble staircase facing them led to upper floors. They followed the professor across the hall into a small, empty room off the hall. As they had passed a doorway to their right, the drone of many voices, likely the rest of the school. They crowded into the small chamber, though.

Professor McGonagall started speaking as the last first years came in. "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be Sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is an important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, you will sleep in your House dormitory, and you will spend free time in your House common room.

"The four Houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has a noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule breaking will lose points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest that you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." And she left. As soon as the door closed, an outbreak of hushed conversations broke out. All concerned the same topics: what they would have to do, and what House they thought or wanted to be in. Then several people screamed, and many others jumped or gasped.

Twenty-odd pearly-white, translucent ghosts streamed through the back wall and glided across the room above the heads of the first years. They seemed to be arguing. A grave looking man with silver blood spread over his chest said, "I knew it would come to disaster. The Sorting hasn't even started, and Peeves is already causing chaos."

A fat little monk replied, "He deserves a chance! He should needs—"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights interrupted him. "My dear Friar, he isn't really even a ghost, but he gives us all a bad name." Still chattering, they floated through the opposite wall.

Professor McGonagall came back in and said, "Form a line and follow me." She led the students out of the chamber, across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

All the first years gasped. The Great Hall was lit by millions of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the other students were sitting. Glittering golden plates and goblets were on the tables. At the end of the hall opposite the doors, there was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Looking up, Sarah saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars, and though she heard Lily whisper to Severus, "I read in _Hogwarts, A History_ that the ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky," Sarah found it hard to believe that there was really a ceiling; perhaps the Hall just opened up to the sky.

The line of new students were led up to the space in front of the teachers' table, facing the crowd of students. Their faces looked like pale lanterns, and the ghosts shone misty silver among them. Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of them. On top of the stool she placed a pointed old wizard's hat, patched and dirty. Sarah looked around the hall, unsure as to why there was a random hat in front of them. Realizing that everybody was staring at the hat, she looked at it. Suddenly, a large slit just above the brim opened, and the hat began to sing:

"_Oh, I know I'm rather dirty,_

_But don't judge me by my looks._

_I'm smarter than you could ever guess,_

_You could say I've read many books._

_I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat,_

_The Sorting Hat is me._

_When you try me on, I tell you,_

_Where you ought to be._

_Perhaps you'll go in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart._

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry,_

_Set those students quite apart._

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal._

_Those patient students are honest,_

_And unafraid of toil._

_Or yet in dear, wise Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where anyone of wit and learning,_

_Will certainly find their kind._

_Then, perhaps in Slytherin,_

_Is where you'll find your friends,_

_These cunning folk use any means,_

_To achieve their ends._

_Just put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (despite my lack)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!_

The hall burst into applause. The hat bent its tip toward each of the four tables, as if bowing, then became quite still once more. Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a roll of parchment, and the students stopped clapping. The teacher, consulting the parchment, called, "Abbott, Joseph!" A boy with blond hair stumbled out of the line and sat on the stool, putting the hat on his head. It fell right down over his eyes.

After a few minutes, the hat cried, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The table to the immediate right clapped and whistled for the boy as he set the hat back on the stool and sat at the table.

McGonagall looked at her parchment again, then said, "Black, Sirius!"

Sirius went up, sat down, and placed the hat on his head. One minute passed. Then two passed. Finally, the Sorting Hat cried, "GRYFFINDOR!" The few people who had begun to clap stopped, stunned. Sirius sat on the stool for a moment, surprised, then a wide grin appeared on his face, and he jauntily swaggered over to the table on the far left, apparently not caring that the whole hall was still utterly silent.

McGonagall, her eyebrows raised in surprise, called the next name on the list. "Evans, Lily" ended up in Gryffindor, and Sarah noticed that Severus seemed rather sad. It continued for some time, then, "Lupin, Remus!" Sarah watched, hoping her friend would be in the House he wanted, Gryffindor, rather than Slytherin, where, he had confided to her, he thought he would end up, being a Dark creature.

A minute passed, then the Sorting Hat called, "GRYFFINDOR!" A smile of relief spread across Remus' features as he replaced the Hat on the stool and joined Sirius at the Gryffindor table.

Then it was Sarah's turn, as McGonagall called, "Milton, Sarah!" She walked to the stool, and, placing the hat on her head, she sat down. She sat for a moment, then she started as a small voice spoke in her ear.

"Hmmm. You're very smart, aren't you?" The voice said. "And loyal. You wish to become an Animagus for your werewolf friend, and I have no doubt that you could manage it by your third year, if you were so inclined. You're brave as well, though. You're brave enough to attempt to become an Animagus, for one. You were brave when your friend was attacked, as well. Yes, very brave. I must say, you're a difficult student to place."

Sarah thought, _I really just want to be with Remus. I'd hate to be in a different House! What if our friendship fell apart because we were separated?_ The hat chuckled in her ear, and she realized that it could hear her thoughts.

"I was most definitely correct about your loyalty. Well, you could do well in most of the Houses, but as you want to be with your friend, you'd better be in GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last word to the hall, which erupted in applause. Removing the hat, Sarah walked over to sit next to Remus, beaming at him.

Hugging her, he said, "I hoped you would be in Gryffindor with me! It will be really cool, being in the same House and the same neighborhood!" Sarah giggled.

"We'll never be apart, though," she said, still laughing. "What if we get tired of each other?"

"Aw, I don't think I'd ever get tired of you, Sarah. You're too good a friend!" Sarah grinned agreement to Remus' statement. Peter joined them, and a few minutes later, James sat next to Sirius.

"Good job, Sirius," he said. "You got your wish: you broke the family tradition! Plus, we get to be in the same House, which will be a lot of fun!" He winked at Sirius, who grinned wickedly.

"Definitely a lot of fun," Sirius said. "Two pranksters' heads are better than one, you know!" He leaned closer to James and whispered, "I know lots of good pranks to annoy the Slytherins. Living in a family with pureblood mania gives one plenty of practice concerning pranks!"

The two boys grinned maliciously as they looked towards the Slytherin table, then they put their heads together and started whispering. Sarah distinctly heard the words, "Muggle pictures," "Permanent Sticking Charms," and "Slytherin common room." She decided it would be better not to ask, and instead she turned her attention to the Sorting as Severus, the last first year, was sorted into Slytherin. Albus Dumbledore stood as McGonagall carried the stool and hat out of the hall.

"To our new students, welcome to Hogwarts! To our old students, welcome back! I'm sure you are all very hungry, but before we begin our feast, I would like to say a few words. Here they are: Spanghew! Poltophagy! Gyascutus! Hapax legomenon!

"Thank you!"

He sat down, and everybody clapped and cheered. Sarah stared, open-mouthed, at the headmaster, then, when Remus nudged her shoulder, she turned to realize that food had appeared on the tables. She stared, amazed, at all the food. As a single parent with a child, her mother and she had never been able to indulge on food. Steak and ice cream were rare treats, and chicken, toast, fruit, and vegetables were much more common in her house. Even Remus' family didn't have too much money to spare, as his parents had frequently taken days off to care for their son at the full moon. The number of days they took off resulted in less money. Yet, on the table, she saw roast beef, bacon and steak, honey-baked ham, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, peas, green beans, honeyed peaches, mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, carrot soufflé, fries, gravy, ketchup, Yorkshire pudding, and strangely, peppermint humbugs. After quite a bit of thinking, Sarah finally chose roast beef, steak, chicken, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, peas, green beans, fries with ketchup, and Yorkshire pudding. The ghost with the ruff from earlier floated over to Sarah and her neighbors.

"Hello!" he greeted them. "I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower. I hope you enjoy Hogwarts just as much as I did, four hundred and thirty years ago." He smiled at them.

James looked at him a moment, then said, "You're Nearly Headless Nick! My dad told me about you!"

The ghost glared at him, saying stiffly, "I'd really prefer you to call me—" Peter interrupted him.

"How can you be _nearly _headless?" he mumbled through a large mouthful of potatoes.

Looking rather annoyed and scandalized, Nick said irritably, "Like this." He grabbed his left ear and pulled, causing his head to swing to the left as if on a hinge. It fell on to his shoulder, making it clear that, though someone had tried to behead him, it had not been done properly. Sarah, averting her eyes from the rather horrible sight, saw a gaunt-faced ghost at the Slytherin table with blood-covered robes. He was sitting next to Severus, who didn't seem very happy about the seating arrangements.

"Who is that?" she asked.

Nick glanced in the direction she was pointing, then said, "That is the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost. Just so you know, the other House ghosts are the Grey Lady," he pointed to an elegant ghost at the Ravenclaw table, a single stab wound visible on her chest, "and the Fat Friar," he pointed at the chubby monk at the Hufflepuff table who they had seen earlier.

"How did the Baron die?" Sirius asked curiously.

"I never asked," Nick said primly. Glancing back towards the frightening ghost, Sarah noticed that the Baron seemed to be staring both remorsefully and longingly at the Ravenclaw ghost, causing her to suspect that he had loved her, and that whatever happened to her had led to his death. Choosing not to voice her suspicion, though, she turned back to her plate as the remains of the dinner faded from the plates, leaving them spotless. Desserts took the main course's place. Sarah saw blocks of ice cream in every flavor imaginable, various flavors of pies, tarts, treacle, éclairs, doughnuts, trifle, chocolate fountains, strawberries, pound cake, Jell-O, pudding...

Eating her cookies and cream ice cream and chocolate satin pie, she listened to her neighbors talk about their families.

"My family is pureblood, of course," said Sirius, a hint of disgust in his voice. "Typical pureblood maniacs, thinking anyone who doesn't agree with them or has less than pure blood is disgusting. Though, I do agree with them on some topics. I mean, creatures like werewolves? I don't see why the Ministry lets them live. They're just too dangerous."

Remus flinched, and Sarah leaned against him, reminding him that not everyone was prejudiced against him. _Shut up, Black,_ she thought desperately. _Not everyone wants to hear your views on werewolves. Some people are actually hurt by them!_ Happily, James spoke instead.

"Well, my family may be pureblood, but we're the biggest bunch of blood traitors there are, except for the Weasleys," he said. "What about you, Peter?"

The boy swallowed. "I'm halfblood. My mum's pureblood, but my dad is Muggleborn."

The boys looked at Remus, who said, "I'm half and half, too. My dad's a wizard, but my mum is a Muggle."

When they looked at Sarah, she shrugged. "My mum is a witch, but I've only met my dad once. It was very brief, as well. I have no idea if he's magical or not, but he seemed like the kind of person who's part of the wizarding community. He wore robes, that kind of thing."

Sirius started to ask, "Why doesn't your dad—" but James cut him off, saying, "Hey, Evans? What about your family?"

The red-haired girl responded, "I'm Muggleborn." Then she returned to her conversation with another girl with red hair who wore a prefect badge.

Dumbledore stood up, and chatter ceased. "Well, now that we have all eaten and drunk, there are a few start-of-term notices I need to say.

"First, first years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. Some of our older students should remember that as well."

His eyes flashed towards two red-haired twins sitting next to the girl to whom Lily had been talking. They appeared to be the girl's brother.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind everyone that no magic should be used in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week. If you are interested in playing for your House, please contact Madam Hooch.

"And now, let us sing the school song!"

Dumbledore flicked his wand, and a long gold ribbon flew out of the end. It rose high above the tables and twisted into words. "Choose your favorite tune, and off we go!"

Together, the whole school bellowed:

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please._

_Whether we be and old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_with some interesting stuff,_

_For now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_Just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot."_

With everyone singing at different tunes, everyone finished at different times. Finally, the only ones left singing were the twins Dumbledore had looked at earlier, James, and Sirius, who were all singing the song to a very, very slow funeral dirge. Dumbledore conducted their last lines with his wand, then said, "Well, off to bed, now! Chop chop!"

The prefect girl next to Lily stood and called, "Gryffindor first years! Follow me!" She led them out the Great Hall, through several doors and halls, over some moving staircases, and finally stopped at a portrait of a very large lady in a pink silk dress. "This is the Fat Lady. She guards the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. The password changes every week, so make sure you learn the password, or you'll have to wait for someone who knows it."

She then told the portrait, "Spanghew." The portrait swung out of its frame, away from them, and they entered the Gryffindor common room. Looking around, Sarah saw plenty of tables and chairs for homework, comfy sofas and armchairs for socializing, and a happily crackling fire spreading warmth throughout the room. She said goodnight to Remus as she followed the other girls towards their dormitory. In the dormitory, there were four four-poster beds each with a nightstand to its left and each girl's trunk to the right. A window was opposite the door. Between the beds to the left of the door, there was another door that led to a bathroom with a large tub as well as a shower. There was also a large mirror over the sink, plus hooks for the girls' toiletry bags. Sarah found her bed to the right of the door. Lily was next to her. They grinned at each other, then Lily announced to the room, "I think that before we go to bed, we should talk to each other, introduce ourselves and say a little something about ourselves."

One of the other girls, who was black, said, "That makes sense. Well, my name is Ariana LeDore. My dad is one of the bartenders in Hogsmeade, and my mum was French."

The fourth girl quirked an eyebrow. "Was?"

Ariana said flatly, "She's dead."

The girl looked down, rather abashed. "Oh. I'm sorry." She raised her head and said, "I'm Alice McClintock, and I'm actually from Scotland. My family lives near McGonagall Mansion, so they know McGonagall pretty well." She grinned. "Her house elf is really sweet."

Lily went next. "My name is Lily Evans, and I'm a Muggleborn. You guys might be surprised to hear this, but I'm a friend of one of the new Slytherins, Severus Snape. We've been friends since before we came to Hogwarts, though."

Then, it was Sarah's turn. "I'm Sarah Milton. I've only ever known my mum. I did meet my dad once, but I was five, so I don't remember him very well. I just remember that when I asked my mum who he was, I asked her who the wolf man was." She smiled at her five-year-old silliness.

Ariana raised an eyebrow. "Wolf man? What on earth made you ask that?"

Sarah shrugged. "He reminded me of a wolf. His hair was the color of a wolf's fur, that kind of thing."

Alice spoke, rather excitedly, "If he looked like a wolf, then maybe he was a werewolf!"

Sarah felt a jolt inside of her. _If he was a werewolf...what if he was the wolf who attacked Remus? That would explain why it bit Remus but not me!_ Hiding her sudden fear, she shrugged again.

"Do you remember his name?" Alice queried.

Sarah thought a moment. "I think my mum called him Fenrir."

"Fenrir Greyback!" Ariana gasped. "He's a werewolf! It must be him; Fenrir isn't a very common name."

"Wow, that must be weird, having a werewolf for a dad," Alice said, sympathetically. "I have to wonder, though, if it would affect you at all." She looked at Sarah, a bit worriedly. "Are you a werewolf? We won't tell anyone if you are." She looked around at the other girls. "Right?" Her dorm mates nodded their heads.

Lily added, "If you are a werewolf, Dumbledore wouldn't have let you come without making sure that you could transform without running the risk of hurting someone."

Sarah smiled at her new friends. "No, I'm not a werewolf. Though, this new information does explain things. The night after I met my father, I encountered a wolf. It attacked the boy with me, but it left me alone. The boy ended up being a werewolf." She looked at the girls. "I suppose that, seeing my mum again after so long, considering I'd never seen him before, he forgot to allow for his transformation." After that, the girls went to bed, but Sarah was awake for a long time, thinking about her father, and how, indirectly, she had burdened Remus with his curse.


	6. Pranks and Wolves

Remus shook his head in disbelief as James and Sirius came into the dorm, laughing. "I can't believe it," he said. "It's only been a week since we started, and you two already have two weeks of detention."

Sirius smiled smugly. "Ah, it's worth it," the black-haired boy said.

Remus raised an eyebrow. In just a week, James and Sirius had set off a dozen Dungbombs in Transfiguration, started a mud fight in Herbology, levitated a Slytherin first year into the chandelier in Charms, and caused their potion to explode, thus flying onto their neighbors with disastrous effects, in Potions. The two pranksters had ended up with two weeks of detention for all their pranks.

The two black-haired boys sat on James' bed and pulled the curtains closed around them. Remus' sensitive hearing tuned into their conspiratory whispers.

"Okay, so we done Dungbombs, mud fights, levitating Slytherins, and exploding potions. What's next on the list, James?" Sirius said in an undertone.

Remus listened carefully. He didn't like eavesdropping, but he felt obligated to try to stop the two pranksters from succeeding in their next plan. They had enough detentions anyway.

"Let's see..." James whispered. Remus could hear the boy's finger dragging across the parchment. "Teach Peeves to look for secret passageways for us. That shouldn't take too long. Why don't I work on that, and you can work on this next job?"

"Well, what is the next job?" Sirius muttered.

"Making Moaning Myrtle flood the second floor. Finding out how she died, as well. I mean, a lot of the other ghosts, you can tell. Nick was beheaded, the Grey Lady and the Baron were stabbed...but Myrtle? Who knows."

"Got it. I'll go work on that right away."

Remus sighed to himself and got up, opening the curtains hiding Sirius and James. "Really, you two?"

There was a flurry of movement as Sirius hid their list of pranks. "Really, what?" He said, fake-cheerfully.

"I heard you talking about your next pranks. Peeves looking for secret passageways? Trying to find out how Moaning Myrtle died and making her flood the second floor? You might not get in trouble for Peeves, and I doubt anyone could pinpoint you two for making Myrtle flood the second floor, but you'll get in trouble for going into the girls' bathroom, even if no one uses it."

James looked at him suspiciously. "How did you hear us? We were whispering. There's no way you could have heard us."

Remus sighed again. "First of all, James, there's magical ways to listen to people's conversations. Second, you two's "whispers" are not as quiet as you apparently thought. Also, I have half a mind to take that list and burn it just so you'll stop getting detentions."

Sirius looked mad as Remus finished speaking. "If you try to take our list and burn it, I'll—I'll—"

Remus grinned. "You'll what?"

Sirius pulled out a knife from his trunk. "I'll cut your guts out and feed them to Squiddy!"

Remus raised an eyebrow as Peter poked his head up from his bed. "Squid? Mmmm...now I want calamari."

James paled. "Calamari? Is that squid?" Peter nodded, and James paled even more. "NOOO! SQUIDDY, I'M SO SORRY! I DIDN'T KNOW!"

Sirius turned to glare at James. "You ate Squiddy's friend? How could you! You are a traitor, and you must have your guts cut out and fed to Squiddy!" Then he chased James out of the dorm, brandishing his knife and screaming, "You betrayed Squiddy! You betrayed Squiddy!"

When they were gone, Remus burst out laughing. "Squiddy?"

Peter nodded vigorously. "Squiddy is the giant squid in the lake." He hesitated. "Do you think that Sirius will really cut James' guts out and feed them to Squiddy?"

Remus chuckled. "Nah. Someone will stop him before he does that."

Sarah poked her head into the room. "Hey, Remus. Why is Sirius chasing James with a knife and threatening to cut James' guts out and feed him to "Squiddy"? And who _is_ this Squiddy?"

"Apparently, James has eaten calamari at some point in his life. Calamari is squid, and to Sirius, eating squid is betraying Squiddy, who is the giant squid living in the lake," Remus laughed. Sarah laughed, too.

"Well, I hope someone stops Sirius from making good on his threat. Right now, he seems like he'd actually carry it out." Peter watched the two friends.

"I'll go check on them," he volunteered. Then he headed out the door.

Sarah stopped laughing as the door closed. "Remus?" she said as she sat next to him on his bed. "I need to talk with you about something." She was biting her lip, the way she did when she was nervous.

Remus thought vaguely, _she's kind of cute when she does that_, then he shook his head. _We're just friends_, he reminded himself. _Just friends. Besides, we're eleven! That's a little young to "fall in love" with someone._ Sarah seemed like she wanted him to say something, so he said, "Okay. What do you need to talk to me about?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. She repeated the actions, like she wanted to say something but didn't know how to phrase it. Then she burst into tears.

Worriedly, Remus tried to soothe her in vain. She was trying to say something through her tears, but even with his sensitive ears, all he could make out was _father_, _werewolf_, and _my fault_. Confused, he asked her, "Does my father blame you for me becoming...well, you know."

She shook her head, then whispered, "My father." Her tears were slowing now, and he could make out her words. She drew in a ragged breath, leaning against him. She seemed exhausted.

"Your father?" Remus queried. "What about your father?"

"Werewolf," she sighed. Her tears seemed to have worn her out an abnormal amount, then he realized that whatever she was trying to tell him, it had been worrying her for a while.

"Your father...was a werewolf?" He asked her, trying to piece it together. She nodded. "And you think he was the one who bit me?" She nodded again, tears leaking out of her eyes and down her cheeks. He could feel a wet spot on his shoulder, but he didn't mind. He was focused on the information Sarah was trying to convey to him. He asked, "Why do you think he's the one who bit me?"

"The wolf bit you. It just sniffed me. Didn't bite me," she mumbled. He thought about it. If her father _was_ a werewolf, and he had been the one who had bitten him, it seemed logical that he wouldn't bite his daughter. After all, they were closely related. He had read somewhere that werewolves fell in love only once. They didn't even have crushes. That one person they loved was called their life mate, and they would never bite their life mate, even if that person put their hand between the werewolf's teeth when the werewolf was transformed. It would make sense for them not to bite their child then, because the child would almost certainly be between the wolf and their life mate.

"It makes sense. If your dad was a werewolf, he could have bitten me and not you," he told Sarah. "But why do you think it was your fault?"

"If Mum and I hadn't been living near you, or if I hadn't wanted to play with you that day, or if I hadn't been born, he wouldn't have been there, and he wouldn't have bit you," Sarah whispered, anguish brimming in her eyes. Remus knew that she hated the full moon almost as much as he did because she wanted to help him through his pain, but she couldn't. She knew that he felt like his lycanthropy was a burden. It had almost prevented from coming to Hogwarts and learning magic. Now, she thought that his condition was her fault. _That must be unbearable_, Remus reflected. _Knowing that your friend hates something, and hating it for him, and then believing that it's your fault that he has to deal with it._

"Sarah, it's not your fault," he said firmly. "It is in no way your fault. You are my best friend in the world, and besides. Even if you weren't born, your mother could still have been living where she is. Then your dad would come visit her, and I still could have been bitten. Except then, I might not have noticed the wolf, and it could have attacked both me and whoever would have been with me. By being born and being with me, you may have prevented someone else from being a werewolf."

Sarah looked up at him, eyes still brimming with tears. "Do you really think so?"

Remus nodded. "Yes."


	7. Animage Spiritu

Sarah looked up at the shelf above, standing on tip-toe as she attempted to see the titles. _There!_ she thought as she caught sight of the book she wanted. She stretched out a hand, but she couldn't reach it. "Darn it!" she growled. She knew she was rather short for her age, but she couldn't think of anyone tall enough to reach it except Remus, and she didn't want him to know about this. Suddenly, a voice came from behind.

"What book do you want? I'll get it down for you, if you'd like." Sarah whirled around and saw Severus Snape.

"Oh! Severus!" She looked at him carefully. "Why do you have blond highlights in your hair?"

"What?" He said, bewildered. Then he cursed. Sarah glared at him for his language. "Sorry. I picked up the habit from my dad." He grimaced. "Anyway, I must have blond highlights because of Potter and Black. They seem to like hexing me."

"I'll try to talk to them about it," Sarah said. "But, the book I want is that one." She pointed. Severus quickly got it down from the shelf, but he frowned as he saw the title.

"Why do you want to learn about Animagi?"

Sarah shrugged. "They sound interesting," she said offhandedly. Severus gave her the book, and she took it to her dorm, pulling the curtains around her bed. After almost two months since coming to Hogwarts, she had learned about Animagi from some fifth years. She had known then and there that she wanted to become an Animagi so she could be with Remus during the full moon. As she read about becoming an Animagus, though, she frowned.

Becoming an Animagus was a long, complicated process. Before you could even attempt the process, you needed to be able to perform both wandless and wordless magic, so that once you were able to transform, you could transform back to a human. Many a witch and wizard had gone through the process to be an Animagi, only to become stuck as an animal because they could not perform wandless and nonverbal magic. Then, you had to figure out your animal, usually through Divination. Once you knew your animal, you had to perform the Animagus spell, _Animage spiritu_, that brought the inner soul, the part that reflected your animal, to the forefront, where you could easily connect to it to transform. Finally, you had to concentrate on your animal, and the part of your soul that you had brought to the forefront, until you transformed for the first time. This last step took a huge amount of patience and focus, and it was the hardest part of the whole process. The spell was also difficult. It was difficult to perform correctly, though it didn't have any repercussions when performed incorrectly.

Sarah sighed. _How am I going to do this?_ she thought. _It will take ages!_ She sighed once more. _I guess I had better get started._ She headed to her dorm.

XxxxX

Sitting on her bed, she focused on the sock she had set at the foot of the bed. Pointing her wand towards the piece of clothing, she thought, _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Nothing happened. She tried again. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Still nothing happened.

Ariana came into the room. "Hey, Sarah," she greeted the girl. Sarah nodded at her in a vague greeting.

_Wingardium Leviosa!_ she thought fiercely once more. Ariana watched her. The sock still didn't move.

"What are you doing?" Ariana asked curiously.

Sarah sighed. _Oh, well. I can always try again another day._ "I'm trying to perform a nonverbal spell," she answered.

Ariana's eyes widened. "Why?"

Sarah shrugged. "I heard about nonverbal spells, and I wanted to try it," she lied. _I can't tell them about trying to be an Animagus. They'd want to know why, and I can't tell them about Remus' lycanthropy!_

"Cool," Ariana said. "Well, I'll leave you to your work." She grinned and, grabbing, something from her trunk, headed back to the common room.

Sarah sighed yet again, and she went back to trying to levitate the sock nonverbally. _If I can't even perform a nonverbal spell, then how am I going to become an Animagus and help Remus? It would have been so nice to surprise him this full moon..._


	8. A Secret Success

Remus groaned. Every inch of him hurt. It was so hard to keep switching places. Despite being back where he had spent so many full moons, the wolf had gotten used to the Shrieking Shack, and it was confused by being back in the garage. When the wolf was confused, it was even more violent.

Feet pounded on the cement floor, splashing through the puddle of blood around him. "Remus!" It was Sarah. She knelt on the floor, heedless of the blood spattered on the floor and soaking through her nightgown.

A hand brushed his head, then he saw her face. It was pinched and tight with worry, and he knew why. He looked even worse than he usually did, and she was worried about him.

He tried to say, "It's okay, Sarah," but it came out as a croak. Gently, Sarah lifted his head up and placed a cup to his lips.

"Here's some water." He drank thirstily. Full moons always left him parched, and when the wolf was as violent as it had been this time, he was desperately thirsty.

John came into the garage. His eyes widened at the sight of his son. "The wolf is upset right now, isn't it?" He asked. Remus went to nod and winced.

"Yes," he said instead. This time, his words were actually words instead of a croak.

He lay back as his friend and father worked to heal his injuries. Thinking, he realized that Sarah seemed to be distant lately. Then he remembered a time during the summer when he had come upon Sarah by the river. Her wand wasn't there, but she had been saying a spell. Wingardium Leviosa. _Why would she be saying a spell with no wand? And why would she be doing it here, during the summer, when we're not supposed to perform magic outside of school?_ He thought. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a movement. A nail had fallen from the shelf near his head. Now, though, it was _levitating_. _Levitating_, all the way to its shelf. Catching sight of Sarah's face, she seemed to be quite joyful. _Did she just do wandless and nonverbal magic?_ He wondered.

Sarah and his father finished their healing, and Sarah helped get up and hobble to his bed. He decided to ask her about the nail on an impulse. "Sarah, did you do wandless and nonverbal magic to levitate that nail in the garage?"

She froze. "Why do you ask?" She said cautiously. "I mean, we're not supposed to do magic outside of school."

"You did do it, didn't you? Nonverbal and wandless magic. Do you know how hard that is?" Remus said, astonished. Nonverbal magic wasn't taught in Hogwarts until sixth year, and wandless magic together with nonverbal spells weren't taught until near the end of seventh year. Many students didn't even attempt it.

Sarah bowed her head. "It was only wandless magic, actually. I whispered the spell, so it wasn't actually nonverbal." She smiled. "But yes, I did do it. And I know how hard it is."

"Why are you trying to do wandless magic?" Remus queried. "Especially outside of school."

Abruptly, Sarah changed the subject. "Remus, you need sleep. You have to go to the Ministry tomorrow to be registered. Go to sleep."

Then she left the room. _She's keeping a secret,_ Remus realized. _Why is she keeping a secret from me? We're friends!_


	9. The Room of Requirement

Sarah looked at the door that had just appeared in the wall next to her. _What the...? That wasn't there before._ She thought. Cautiously, she opened the door. As she saw the room behind it, she gasped. There were cushions on the floor, a fireplace opposite the door, and bookshelves all along the walls. Luckily, the bookshelves were in her reach. There was also divination equipment in a corner. Plus there were feathers to practice spells with. Sarah closed the door behind her and examined some of the titles closest to her. _Transfiguration and Animals_ by Fauna Dorman, _Animagi_ by Keryn Cada, _The Weak Witch and Wizard's Guide To Becoming an Animagus_ by "Butch" Indrajal...Then there was _Divination and You_ by Ramla Divi, _How to Use the Crystal Ball_ by Chrystal Ballard...It was the perfect place to become an Animagus.

Sarah pulled out her wand. Since coming back to Hogwarts four months ago, she had spent every spare moment practicing both nonverbal and wandless magic, but it was always separately. She decided to practice both kinds separately for a few minutes, then try them together.

_Wingardium Leviosa!_ she thought, pointing her wand at one of the feathers. It didn't move, so she tried again. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ This time, the feather rose into the air, going wherever she pointed her wand. She ended the spell, then set her wand down. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she cried, pointing her hand at the feather. Once again, it rose into the air. The girl smiled. She ended the spell once more, then, focusing on the feather, she pointed her hand at it and thought, _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Nothing happened.

Suddenly, the bell rang. "All students go to the Great Hall!" A voice boomed through the school. "There is an attack on Hogsmeade!"

_Author's Note: Ok, I know this is a really short chapter, and I know it's a cliffhanger, but it's a good stopping place. So you don't have to feel the suspense for too long, I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP. Thank you, everyone who has been reading my story! I feel so excited! _Love and Prejudice_ has had nearly one hundred visitors, last I checked! I appreciate the reviews as well!_


	10. Hidden Things

Remus burst out of the common room, screaming, "Sarah! Sarah, where are you?" All around him, he could hear the babble of voices, fear and confusion clear in equal amounts. "Sarah!"

There was no answer.

"Sarah!" Remus knew he wasn't headed towards the Great Hall, but he didn't care. He had to find Sarah.

"Remus! Where are you going?" James pulled him back. "We're supposed to go to the Great Hall."

"I have to find Sarah!" Remus struggled against James, and Sirius joined in trying to pull Remus back towards the slowly thinning crowd. _Why am I so desperate to find Sarah? _Some part of his mind wondered. _She's a good friend, and we've been friends for a long time, but it's nothing to make me so desperate to find her._

"Remus!" Peter joined the threesome, pushing against his chest. In a burst of his werewolf strength and speed, Remus leaped away from his friends, racing farther into the castle as the night turned to day with a flash in Hogsmeade and a huge tremor shook the building.

"Sarah!" He called. _Where is she? I can't find her anywhere!_

Finally, he saw a flash of blue. "Sarah?"

"Remus! Help!" Remus turned the corner and faced a large pile of rubble. A shoe that he recognized as Sarah's lay near it.

He turned in a circle. "Sarah, where are you?"

A muffled voice answered him. "I'm in a recess that's blocked by this mess. I barely had time to push the vase and column out of here and get in it before that stuff fell. I think it was knocked loose from the tremor. All you should have to do is the repair spell. I just can't remember what it is!"

"It's reparo, but surely there's not room for your wand to move, is there?"

"Hang on."

Remus waited, but he didn't hear anything except for some movement. There was another rustle, then a sigh. Finally, he heard, "Reparo!" The mass of rock moved as it repaired itself back into the ceiling. He hurried to Sarah's side, then frowned. "Where's your wand?"

"Right here," Sarah said, showing him her pocket.

"You didn't use it?"

Sarah smiled mischievously. "Nope!"

Remus grinned at her. "Man, you must be powerful."

Suddenly, Professor McGonagall appeared. "Why are you two not in the Great Hall?"

"I was stuck in a recess behind a pile of rubble, and Remus was trying to find me," Sarah said.

McGonagall's lips were extremely thin. "Mr. Lupin, you should have gone straight to the Hall. I understand that you would want to find your friend, but you could have put yourself in danger." She turned to Sarah. "Ms. Milton, why were you not in your common room?"

Sarah hesitated. "I...I..."

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "You what?"

"I...went for a walk..."

McGonagall stared at her suspiciously, then said, "Both of you, get to the Great Hall. Now!"

XxxxX

The Great Hall was full of pajama-clad students and nervous chatter. Sarah and Remus joined the other second-year Gryffindors as Alice was saying, "I heard that Sarah's dad was there!"

"Who is Sarah's dad?" Peter asked, curious. Remus winced, knowing how hard it would be for Sarah to tell them who her father was.

Sarah sighed as she sat next to Lily and directed a glare at Alice. "We think that my father is Fenrir Greyback," she said flatly.

"Oh," Peter mumbled.

Still glaring at Alice, Sarah turned to Ariana. "Have you heard anything about your dad? Isn't he in Hogsmeade?"

The other girl shook her head. "Yeah, he's in Hogsmeade, but I haven't heard anything about my dad. I'm hoping to see Dumbledore; he must know something." She gasped. "There he is!" She raced off to the tall, silver-haired Headmaster and started speaking frantically to him. The two people were rather close, and Remus couldn't help overhearing their conversation.

"Un—Professor, have you heard anything about my dad?" Ariana was saying. Remus' eyes widened. _Did she just call Dumbledore "Uncle"?_

"I know that Death Eaters are attacking in the vicinity of the Hog's Head, and I am certain that my brother Aberforth will be fighting them. He has never been the type of person to stand by." Dumbledore chuckled, then his face became sober again. "However, I do not know whether he is dead or injured." _Aberforth...I've heard of him! He's Dumbledore's brother! And if he's talking about Aberforth in response to Ariana's question, plus she nearly called Dumbledore "Uncle"...she's Dumbledore's niece!_

Hurriedly, he waved at Ariana to follow him as she came back to the group, her shoulders slumped. She looked at him, curious, as they walked to a corner where no one could hear them. "Ariana..." Remus started, then he stopped. He had no idea how to address this situation.

"What?" The girl's face was free and clear. He could tell she didn't suspect that he had heard her and Dumbledore.

"You're..." He hesitated, then rushed his words out of his mouth. "You're Dumbledore's niece, aren't you?"

Ariana looked taken aback, then startled and upset. "How—Why do you think that?"

"I accidentally overheard your conversation with Dumbledore a moment ago," Remus confessed. "I know that Dumbledore is the only person Voldemort fears, and since you're related to Dumbledore, Voldemort might target you so he can get to Dumbledore. Because of that, I promise I won't tell. I'm good at keeping secrets."

Ariana had tensed up, then relaxed as he promised not to tell her secret. "Thanks, Remus. You're right. He's my uncle. Although," she said with a grin, "I am part French. My mum was from France."


	11. Worry, Wands, and Words

Sarah snuggled into her soft purple sleeping bag. An hour after the students had congregated in the Great Hall, Dumbledore had conjured the bags for all the students, as it was considered too dangerous for the students to separate. It would have taken needed fighters away from Hogsmeade to protect them.

However, Sarah couldn't sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about Alice's gossipy comment. _Is my dad really in Hogsmeade? What is he doing there? And why would Alice comment on that? It's not like my dad would be on Voldemort's side...right?_

She groaned and turned over yet again. Then she noticed glowing golden eyes looking at her. "Oh!" She tensed, trying to figure out what or who was looking at her through the dim light filtering through the windows.

"Sarah?" She relaxed as Remus' whisper came from the direction of the eyes.

"Remus! You scared me!" She quietly teased him. There was a gleam of white, and she knew he was smiling.

"You've been tossing and turning all night. I was wondering what's wrong."

She sighed. "You know that comment Alice made? The one about my dad?"

"Yes."

"Well, I can't stop thinking about it. Is my dad really there? If he is, why? Why would she say something about? Could he be on Voldemort's side and that's why he's there?" She closed her eyes. She felt a little better just saying her fears and questions out loud.

"That's a lot of questions," Remus teased, and Sarah knew he was trying to make her feel better.

"I know," she sighed. "I just wish there was someone who could answer them."

XxxxX

She was back in the strange room. She knew for certain that there had been no door on the wall opposite the tapestry of trolls in tutus clobbering a goblin, and as she passed it, a door appeared. When she opened the door again, it was the same room. _Oh, well. It's a good place to work on my plan._

She set her wand on a side table and focused. Pointing her hand at the fluffy white feather in front of her, she thought, _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Nothing happened. She tried again. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ Nothing happened. She shrugged; she knew that it would take a lot of work.

Two hours passed. Sarah sighed. It was the last weekend before the year ended, and she wanted to find out her animal before then. She tried to move the feather yet again. _Wingardium Leviosa!_ The feather moved, visibly. It didn't levitate, but it was a start. Sarah spent another hour trying to levitate the feather wand- and wordlessly. Finally, she succeeded. _Yes!_ She practiced her new skill a while longer, then she realized that it was almost curfew. She hurried to the Gryffindor common room, making it in just before curfew.

XxxxX

_Author's Note: I know, I know. It's another short chapter. But I keep running out of things to write in whatever event it is before I have more than a page. I promise the next chapter will be longer! I know it!_


	12. Discovery

It was the day before the full moon, just a week before they left for summer holidays. Remus eyed his friends. Peter, Sirius, and James were whispering together, just out of range of his hearing. It was like they knew he was a werewolf. He shivered. _I don't think I could stand anyone finding out. The consequences would just be too horrible!_

James sauntered over to him where he was working on his Potions essay. "Remus, last time you were gone, we were playing Truth or Dare. Want to join in this time?"

"Well, I have to go soon. My mum's sick, and Dumbledore's letting me visit her. But, I think I have time to play for a little bit," Remus said, smiling at them.

Sirius went first. "Peter, truth or dare?"

Peter thought for a minute. "Truth."

"Do you still wet the bed?"

Peter went bright red. "Uh..."

"Now, Peter," James mock-chided. "You have to answer truthfully."

Peter mumbled a yes, and the other boys burst out into a fit of coughs.

"SO, James, truth or dare?" Peter asked hurriedly.

"Dare!" James said.

"Go into the second-year girls' dorm!"

James snuck out of the dorm and into the common room, the other boys following to make sure he didn't cheat. The room was empty. Everyone had left to their dorm rooms. "Someone has to levitate me!" He whispered to them.

Sirius gave him a scornful look. "When you get a dare in truth or dare, you have to carry it out yourself!" he hissed.

James frowned, then perked up. Pulling out his wand, he conjured a rope and made it attach itself to the ceiling, one end at the bottom of the girls' stairs, and the other end disappeared into the darkness. He climbed on a table next to the doorway and grabbed the rope. Then he went hand over hand up the stairs. "I'll follow him," Remus whispered. Quickly, he jumped on the table and grabbed the rope, following James. He caught up with after a minute. "James!"

The other boy whipped his head around. "Remus, what are you doing here?"

"Sirius wanted to make sure you weren't cheating."

"I see."

The two boys continued traveling hand over hand up the rope. Finally, they reached a door with a sign that said, "Second-Year—Lily Evans, Sarah Milton, Ariana LeDore, Alice McClintock." James carefully opened the door with his feet and dropped silently inside. Through the open door, Remus saw him grab something then come back out, jumping to reach the rope. James closed the door, and the two boys traveled back down the rope into the common room.

"Tada!" James whispered. He pulled out a wand. As Remus looked closer, he realized it was Sarah's.

"James! You took Sarah's wand?" He scolded his friend.

"Well, yeah. I figured you would recognize it, thereby validating my claim."

"Go back up and give it back! She'll freak out if she can't find her wand!"

James looked confused. "Why would she freak out? It has to be here in Hogwarts."

Remus gritted his teeth. "It was an eleventh birthday present from her dad. He left her the money because he couldn't go to Diagon Alley with them."

"Oh." Without another word, James went back up the rope. When he came back down, the wand was gone, and James reassured Remus that he had put it back where it belonged. They trooped back up into their dorm, and it was James' turn.

"Remus, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Sirius pouted. "You're no fun!" Remus just grinned.

"Remus..." Something about James' demeanor and tone made Remus nervous. He shook himself mentally, deciding that he was being silly.

"Are you a werewolf?"


	13. Acceptance

Sarah woke up. She had no idea of what had woken her, but she could hear vague sounds of movement near her bed. Opening her eyes just a little, she could make out a human shape placing something on her bedside table. It left, and she sat up, looking at the table. Everything seemed normal. Picking up her wand, she looked out the door. A rope was on the ceiling, one end connected while the rest, dangling loose, disappeared down the stairs. The shape she had seen seemed to be traveling along the rope down the stairs. Quietly, she followed it. As she neared the common room, the rope disappeared, and she could hear voices. One sounded like Remus. She saw four shadowy shapes disappearing up the boys' staircase as she entered the common room. She followed them, and she reached a door with light filtering out from below it. The sign said it was the dorm of the second year boys. Then she heard words she had hoped never to hear:

"Remus, are you a werewolf?"

She opened the door to see three faces looking at her friend both expectantly and nervously, while her friend seemed to be in shock. She hurried over to him and touched his arm lightly. "Remus?" The boys, she noticed vaguely, seemed flabbergasted at her appearance in their room. Remus shook himself slightly, then looked at her.

"They know..." he said weakly.

"I know," she soothed.

"We were playing Truth or Dare and..."

Sarah glared at the other boys. "You were toying with him!" She accused.

James hurried to assure her otherwise. "No! We wouldn't do that! Remus is our friend. We thought it would be better to do it this way. We figured that if we just went and asked him straight out, it would be too startling, upsetting."

Sarah sighed. "Well, I think you have your answer. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

Remus gasped. "Please," he begged them. "Please don't tell anyone! I promise I won't hurt you, really. I'll move out of the dormitory if you want, just please don't tell anyone!"

Sirius, James, and Peter were staring at Remus in abject shock. Sarah understood; Remus was usually a very controlled, calm person. To see him so desperate, so clearly afraid, must have been quite a surprise for them.

"Remus, we're not going to tell. We don't care if you're a werewolf. You're our friend," Peter said. James nodded vigorously in agreement, and Sarah looked at them, grateful that Remus had found such good friends.

Remus blinked at Peter's words. "You...you still want to be friends? And you're not going to tell anyone?" The two boys nodded, and Remus turned to Sirius. "Sirius?"

Slowly, the boy looked up at him. Remus waited hopefully, then the other boy rushed into the bathroom, and the sounds of someone vomiting could be heard. The amber-eyed werewolf slumped. "I guess not."

"I doubt he'll tell," Peter reassured him. "As for being your friend, though..." He looked uncomfortable.

"I'll make him," James growled.

"No, you want," Sarah admonished. "His reaction isn't his fault." The boys looked at her in surprise and confusion. She explained. "He's a Black—a member of an uppity pureblood family. Those families scorn anyone they consider to be of less than pure blood. They also scorn people from their families who like and are friends with those people and Muggles, or creatures they term "half breeds". Werewolves are considered the worst half breeds, and they teach their children to despise "mudbloods", those with less than pure blood, "blood traitors," people who like and befriend mudbloods, and half breeds. So, all his life, Sirius has been taught that werewolves are horrible, vicious murderers. That will be difficult to deal with now that he know one of his best friends is one of those "horrible, vicious murderers." Rather than making him be friends, it would be better to show him the other side of things."

The three boys looked at her in surprise. "How do you know all that?" James asked in amazement.

"My mother was a Black. She legally changed her name after being kicked out for loving my father, though. She told me about the pureblood families' views and their prejudices."

Remus looked at her. "A Black?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes. I think that my grandmother was the sister of Sirius' grandfather, so I'm his second cousin, I think."

The boys looked at her, then Remus said, "Well, you learn something new everyday."

XxxxX

"Sirius!" Sirius heard the call, but he didn't turn around. He just _knew_ that it was Sarah, and he didn't want to listen to her berate him for his reaction two nights ago.

"Sirius!" The voice was closer, and then a hand was on his shoulder, turning him around.

He glared at her. Blue eyes bright, golden hair shining, she looked back at him, unmoved. "I want to talk to you about that night."

He growled at her. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I'm sure. But you don't have to get so upset. I'm not going to scold you for something I know you can't help."

He started. _Well, that's unexpected._

"You're from one of the uppity pureblood families—the kind that teaches their children from an early age the idea that werewolves are horrible, vicious killers."

Sirius stared at her, speechless. _How does she know all this?_

"But there's a lot they don't tell you about werewolves, Sirius. Come on." Sarah tugged his arm as she walked in the direction of the Hospital wing, and he followed her. She led him to the small window that let visitors see in the hospital wing if people needed to be quarantined.

"Look," she told him. He peered in and saw Remus lying on a hospital bed. The sheets had been pushed back down to his waist, and angry red gashes, bites, and claw marks were distinct on his torso. Sirius gaped at the sight, astonished. As he watched, Madam Pomfrey came into view and gave the werewolf a potion that he drank, grimacing at the taste.

"What happened to him?" He asked Sarah.

"That's what happens when a werewolf prevents himself from reaching its human prey, and that prey is within the wolf's smelling range," she told him. "This is what happens every full moon. Every full moon since he was five, when he was bitten."

"How do you know?"

"I've been his friend since we were three, and I was there when he was attacked. And every full moon, as soon as the sun rises, I go into the garage, or wherever he is, and I comfort him until whoever will heal him comes, and then I help the healer take care of him. I've done that since I was five." She looked at him with her clear, steady gaze, and he realized that there was no reason to abhor or fear his friend.

"Can I see him?" He asked. She shook her head.

"No, sadly. It might cause problems for the staff to know that four more students know his secret. But when he comes back, make sure he knows." She smiled at him, then entered the hospital wing and sat next to the injured boy, talking to him and making sure he knew someone cared. Hardly anyone else would.


	14. The Success For a Friend

The third-year Gryffindor class milled around at the top of the North Tower. They could see a trapdoor above them, but there was no visible way to get through it. Then, it opened, and a voice floated through. "Come up, my children, come up."

A silvery ladder fell through the opening, and one by one, the students climbed up. Remus sat with Lily, Sarah, and Alice at one table, and James, Sirius, Peter, and Ariana sat at the next table. Looking around, he saw a cabinet of teacups, a few large teapots, and lots of low tables surrounded by groups of comfortable-looking poufs, just like the two at which he and his friends were sitting. He couldn't see a teacher, though. _Ah, well, it is rather smoky in here. She's probably somewhere in the shadows._ He twisted around and came face to face with what appeared to be an extremely large fly. "Ah!"

"Oh, my dear child. Did I scare you? I'm so sorry." The oddest woman Remus had ever seen was standing in front of him. She had very large glasses, multiple shawls, and bushy, frizzy black hair. Her eyes, magnified by the glasses, made her look like an odd fly. She smiled at him, then made her way to the front of the room.

"I am Professor Trelawney," the woman said. "Divination is an intricate subject. We shall start with reading tea leaves." The girls at his table all raised eyebrows at each other. "Come take a cup from the cabinet over here, then come to me to receive your tea. Drink the tea, switch cups with a partner, and swirl the dregs three times clockwise. Then search for symbols and translate them with your textbook. And Mr. Longbottom?" Frank Longbottom started, then looked at her. "After you break your first cup, would you be so kind to choose a blue cup? I'm rather attached to the pink."

It was quite an odd class. Never before had Remus ever drunk tea as part of the lesson. When the tea was finally gone, he switched cups with Sarah. He swirled the cup as commanded, looked down—and blinked. He blinked again. "Sarah?" he said.

"Hmm?"

"There's a wolf in your cup."

She blinked at him. "There's a what in my cup?"

"A wolf."

"Let me see." He handed the cup to her. She looked down, blinked, and started laughing. "I should have known!" she giggled. "It had to be a wolf!"

Remus stared at her. "What are you talking about?" he queried.

"Oh, nothing," she said, still giggling.

Remus' eyes narrowed. "Why are you keeping secrets, Sarah? We never used to keep secrets. We always told each other everything."

The girl glanced at Lily and Alice. "Not here, Remus!" she hissed. "Please! We'll deal with later, in private, just not right now, please!"

"Fine," he said shortly. "Of course, there is one problem with that, as you well know."

Her eyes were sad. "I know. I promise you'll find out soon. Really."

He turned away to look at her cup again. _Why is she keeping secrets from me? What is she talking about? And what did she mean when she said that thing about it having to be a wolf?_

XxxxX

Sarah sighed. She was back in the room where she had been working on her Animagus project, and she couldn't help thinking about Remus' and her conversation in Divination. She hated keeping things from him, but she really wanted it to be a surprise. _Well, better get to work. Tonight's the full moon. Maybe, just maybe, I can get it done today._

She looked at the book in her lap again to check the spell, then raised her wand, pointing it at her forehead, and said, "Animage Spiritu." A jolt went through her, and she blinked in surprise. "I guess it worked," she said to herself. Then she settled down on a pile of pillows to work on her first transformation.

An hour passed as she sat on the pillows, focusing on the wolf and the bit of soul that was now at the forefront of her mind. Another hour went by, and another, and Sarah knew that the moon would set soon. But she refused to let that fact break her concentration. Another hour went by, and then, she felt some sort of breakthrough. She felt her body elongate, and her nose lengthen. A tail sprouted, and her skin tingled as fur popped out. She opened her eyes. She was curled up like a dog on the pillows, and she bounded over to a mirror to see what she looked like as a wolf. She was gray on her back, tail, and top of her head, while underneath, she was white. She had large, intelligent-looking eyes, and she noticed a small scar, received when she had slipped while trying to climb the Lupins' oak tree when it was wet, on her right shoulder. She practiced switching forms for a while, then, in human form, hurried to the Whomping Willow. She knew that Remus would have transformed by now, so she slipped into her wolf form and dodged through the branches to the tunnel that led to the Shack.

It was very dark underground, but as a wolf, her vision in the dark was much better than as a human. She finally bounded out into the Shack, and she sniffed the air uncertainly. A yelp sounded from above her, and, after spotting a set of stairs, she raced upstairs. The first thing she noticed was the large, leggy, patchy gray-brown creature in front of her. It was very skinny, and its hind legs seemed much stronger than a normal wolf's. Half an hour after moonrise, there were already bleeding wounds on its sides, legs, and tail. Then the creature she knew as a friend any other time turned its head, and she caught sight of its eyes. They were a glowing gold, almost the normal color of Remus' eyes, but just a little different. It growled at her, and she almost shrank back. Then she realized that it might think that she was weak, a creature to be dominated. She stood tall and proud, inviting him to sniff her, see that she was a wolf.

The werewolf came forward, head stretched forward as he smelled her. He walked around her, watching. Then she heard a voice. _Wolf. Like me, but not exactly._ She realized that, since they were both wolves, despite the fact that he was a werewolf, they would speak the same language. She responded, _Yes. I am a wolf like you, except all the time. Not just full moon._ The other creature let his haunches fall to the floor.

_You are new. Never been here before. Or in other place with big metal door._ He paused. _Play?_

She howled in joy. She could help him, distract him from hurting himself. _Yes! Play!_ She blinked, thinking. _Hide and seek?_

He tilted his head. _What is that?_

_Go hide. I try to find you._

_ Okay._ The other animal bounded down the stairs, and Sarah waited a minute before howling, _I am coming to find you know!_ Then she bounded down the stairs after him.

They played for hours. At first, she was able to simply use her nose, but after both their scents spread all over the place, she used her other senses as well. They switched places after a while, so she was hiding and he was searching. Finally, two hours before the moon would set, they lay next to each other, Sarah's back against her friend's belly. _Sleep?_ she asked him. Normally, she was awake all night on the full moon, but now she tired from racing around the Shack, playing with the werewolf.

He gave a growling laugh. _Sleep._ His snout nuzzled the top of her head. _Life mate._ He lay his head down, and his eyes closed. Soon he was fast asleep. Sarah was awake a little longer than he, though. She wondered what a life mate was, and why he had called her that. Eventually, though, the two slept quietly, so close together it was difficult to tell the length of each's fur.


	15. Love Finds Us All

Remus opened his eyes to see gray fur. Startled, he rolled onto his back and sat up, moaning slightly from the pain the injuries on his sides, arms, and legs caused. At the sound, the creature next to him moved, lifting its head to look at him. Remus blinked. It was a wolf with large, intelligent eyes and a scar on its right shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" he croaked. He felt extraordinarily thirsty for as few wounds as he appeared to have. The wolf sat up and looked at him, then—it wasn't there. Instead, Sarah was there, grinning mischievously. "What the...?" He groaned. "I must be delirious."

"No, you're not," Sarah told him. "Watch." Suddenly, the wolf was where Sarah had been, and the girl was gone. Then, the wolf was gone, and Sarah was back. "Well?"

He gaped at her. Then, his tired brain thought it through and figured it out. "Are...Are you an Animagus?"

"Yes, but unregistered, so don't tell anyone," she said, still grinning. Then the grin disappeared. "There was something I wanted to ask you about, though." She took a breath. "First of all, since we're both wolves, we can speak the same language. Well, last night, right before we both fell asleep, you called me life mate. And I was wondering, what does that mean?"

Remus stared at her, startled. "I called you...life mate?" She nodded. "Uh..."

"What is a life mate?"

"Well...okay. Werewolves, they only fall in love once in their life. For that reason, the person they fall in love with is called their life mate. Actually, more often than not, they fall in love with each other."

"So, since you called me life mate..." she said slowly. She seemed to still be trying to figure it out. Remus couldn't blame her. It was a shock for him, as well; after them being friends for so long, he was finding out, at the age of thirteen, that he loved her, and she was the only one he would _ever_ love.

She seemed stuck, so he finished her sentence. "I love you. I didn't actually realize it until now, but...I really do love you."

She stared at him, then leaned forward. Their lips met, and it was several minutes before they parted. "Well," Remus said, "I take it that you love me back?"

She laughed, and they kissed once more, not breaking until they heard Madam Pomfrey's footsteps the floor below.

XxxxX

Remus left the hospital wing, Sarah next to him. The few injuries he had incurred before Sarah had come to the Shack had been quickly healed by the nurse, and he was able to go to class that very day. They walked, hand in hand, towards Gryffindor Tower. When they entered the common room, several people were already there, Sirius, Peter, and James included. It was a bright, sunny Saturday, and Remus was surprised that Sirius and Peter were already awake. They were notorious for being difficult to wake before noon, and Sirius generally yelled at his awakener that he would cut their guts out and feed them to Squiddy.

"Hey, guys," he greeted them. All three started, then turned to him.

"Remus! You're back early!" James said. He glanced at the students around him, then said, "Come on. Let's talk upstairs!" The five walked up to the boys' room, then Sirius spoke.

"Why are you back so soon, Remus? You usually come back two days after, not the morning after."

Remus glanced at Sarah. "Well, I wasn't hurt as badly this time."

The three others looked unimpressed with his excuse. "What are you not telling us?" James asked him skeptically.

"It's private," the werewolf told him.

"Aw, come on, Moony! Things are hardly ever private around here! You know that!" Peter complained.

"Well, this is," Remus said icily. "And why did you call me "Moony"?"

"It's your new nickname," James said. "And don't try to change the sub—" He was interrupted by Sarah's giggling.

"Remus, maybe my nickname should be Lupa," she said through her laughter. "That would definitely fit me." Remus laughed at that. He remembered learning about Roman myths, and discovering that his namesake had been part-god and cared for by a wolf named Lupa after his grandfather threw him and his twin in a river to drown. Sarah was right; it would fit her.

Sirius frowned at her. "Who said you get a nickname?"

"Oh, come on, Sirius. I think she's right. Her nickname is Lupa," Remus laughed. "Just don't act like you're my mother," he teased her.

"Really, you two," James scolded. "What's the big secret?"

Both of the wolves looked at each other. "We told you, it's private," Sarah responded. "And we know how to keep a secret. And you can't figure it out this time," she added. "This one is a little less obvious than lycanthropy."


	16. Moony's Pack

Sarah, as Lupa (Remus' and her term for her wolf form), growled at the three strange animals standing in front of her. Remus, now known between them as Moony during the full moon like tonight, was next to her, watching the creatures. It was now their fifth year at Hogwarts, and their love, discovered on the first full moon of their third year, had blossomed. Sarah had made it a habit, even away from Hogwarts, to join Remus during the full moon as Lupa, so here they were, in the Shrieking Shack, facing a large, proud stag, a large, gray-eyed black lab, and a brown, spotty-faced rat.

Lupa looked closer at the animals. They reminded her vaguely of James, Sirius, and Peter. The rat, in particular, seemed like Peter. As she thought about it, she realized that the gray dots on the rat's face had the same pattern as Peter's pimple scars, souvenirs from a rather horrible mistake in Potions in fourth year. And the dog's gray eyes were just like Sirius', while the stag had faint rings around its eyes that had the same shape as James' glasses.

Hoping that, as a fellow canine, the dog could understand her, she asked, _Are you Sirius?_

The lab's eyes widened, then he answered, _Yes, but as an animal, I go by Padfoot._ He pointed his tail towards the stag. _That's James, currently as Prongs,_ he then pointed his tail at the rat, _and that's Peter, currently as Wormtail._

_Well, you probably can't tell, but I'm Sarah, going by Lupa in this form. I'm sure you know who this werewolf is, but he goes by Moony on full moon nights,_ Lupa told the dog.

Moony broke in. _Why are you here?_ He asked suspiciously.

Padfoot looked confused. _To play with you, take you out into the forest._

_ Okay!_ Moony panted joyfully.

_No!_ Lupa said. _No forest! Too dangerous!_ Padfoot rolled his eyes.

_Who cares?_ the black canine told her.

_What if Moony attacks someone? Moony might not care, but Remus will._

_ A wolf, a stag, and a black lab should be enough to handle a werewolf._

_ Yeah, except that werewolves are much stronger than they look! They're also just a little faster than any of us, with their magically enhanced strength!_

_ Have a little faith, Lupa. We'll be fine._

The she-wolf crouched, snarling in anger at the stubborn dog. _Either you don't care about Remus, or you have no brains! We can't handle a werewolf, and if he attacks a human, Remus will hate himself for the rest of his life!_

Padfoot snarled at her. _Do NOT say I don't care about my friend!_

_ Since you apparently care about him, then you obviously have no brain!_

Moony looked at them nervously as tension crackled in the air. The two angry canines seemed like they were about to start fighting when Prongs, sensing their anger despite having no idea what they said, pushed his way between them and glared. His message was clear: no fighting.

_We won't go out tonight, okay?_ Padfoot said to Lupa, obviously trying to make up.

_Fine,_ she sighed. Moony nuzzled her side.

_Outside? _ He whined.

_Not tonight, _she said. Moony growled in displeasure but didn't argue.

_We were going to be Moony's pack for him_, Padfoot interrupted, _but I guess we're just joining you guys._ He looked at Lupa curiously. _Why are you here, and how are you an Animagus?_

_I'm Moony's life mate,_ Lupa replied. At the confused look on the others' faces, she explained, _Werewolves fall in love once in their life. The person they love is called their life mate, and minus a few rare exceptions, the love is mutual. Anyway, I'm an Animagus because, having been with Moony for so long, I wanted to be able to help him during the full moon. In my third year, I managed to transform and join Moony here._

_I see. Is this your big secret? Your Animagus ability?_

_ Yes._

_ Guess we have no secrets anymore._

_ As far as I know, that would be correct._

XxxxX

_Author's Note: I know I skipped fourth year, but there was nothing to write about then! Also, I like reviews! I find it sad that almost 170 people have seen my story, but only two people have reviewed! So, review! I'll answer!_


	17. Invasion

_Moony! Stop!_ Lupa cried. The crazed werewolf paid no attention to his life mate's pleas as he attempted to attack the black-haired, dark-eyed boy who had entered the tunnel.

"Oh my god!" The boy screamed, trying to back away from the werewolf. He tripped over a rock and fell. He cried out in pain; his ankle appeared to be twisted.

_Padfoot, this your fault! Get Severus out!_ Lupa snarled at the shivering dog who was attempting to help keep the werewolf back. Then Prongs appeared behind the fallen Slytherin, switching to James before Severus noticed the stag behind him.

"Come on, Snape," he grunted as he pulled the other boy up. Wormtail skittered beneath their feet in the direction of the Willow; he was clearly headed to press the knot, letting the two humans out. The cause of Moony's fury headed to safety, Lupa flung herself at the werewolf once more, hating herself as she clawed at him in an attempt to distract him from his killing fury.

_Moony! Moony, listen! Listen to your life mate! Please!_

The werewolf was oblivious to anything but the two humans who were slowly making their way out of danger.

In a burst of strength, she flung herself at his legs, making him fall over. She leapt on him and dug her claws into the ground, desperately trying to keep him flat. _Moony, please! For our love! For me! For the good human you are deep down!_

At her words "love" and "me", the creature below her shuddered, as if they had a small effect on some sane part of him.

_Moony, I love you! Stop fighting! Please!_ He shuddered again, but the madness had taken him already, and no amount of her pleading was stopping him. Finally, he turned away from the end of the tunnel, and he threw himself upwards. Lupa howled in fear as she crashed back against Padfoot. The werewolf raced towards the Shack, then a thunderous crash resounded through the tunnel. _Moony! _Lupa howled.

A horrible sight was present when she reached the end of the tunnel. Moony was flinging himself at every hard surface available, and blood was dripping from almost every inch of his body as he gnawed and scratched himself in a vain attempt to relieve the fury that had overtaken him. _Moony! _She cried. She flung herself on her life mate, trying to get him to stop hurting himself. _Moony, I love you! Stop this!_ He continued his attempt to claw his ear off.

Leaping up, she tugged his paw away. _Moony! It's me, Lupa! Your life mate! Stop hurting yourself!_

She saw it coming. Oblivious to her presence, he tried to dig deeply into his side and scratch a large gash there. But she was in the way, and she howled in pain as the werewolf's long, vicious claws bit into her skin and dragged their way from her hip to her shoulder. Blood spurted from the wound as she staggered. _Moony!_ she wailed. The werewolf was suddenly frozen. His head turned towards her, and she could see the shock of his injuring her and the fear that he might lose her in his eyes. Rage forgotten, he bounded to her, pressing against her wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He licked her fur, love and fear battling in his gaze.

_Lupa! No!_ He whimpered. _No! No! I'm sorry! How...?_

_I was in the way,_ she murmured, her vision graying. Then Moony howled in pain as a sunbeam burst into the room and he transformed back into a human. After a few moments, he collapsed next to her as she managed to switch to her human form.

"Sarah, I'm sorry," he gasped. "How...how could I have hurt you? You were a wolf, and you're my life mate! How?"

"You were trying to attack yourself, but I was in the way of your attack. I wasn't fast enough to get out of the way," she whispered. His hand gripped hers as they both lost consciousness.

XxxxX

"You stupid, idiot, dumb, traitorous mutt!" James bellowed at Sirius. "What the #$% were you thinking when you told Snape to go in there?"

"I thought it would be a funny joke. I thought he would go in the tunnel, and when he realized he was in the Shack, which is supposed to be haunted, he would be really scared. I didn't think he would go in on a full moon night!" Sirius defended himself. "Please, James, I didn't mean for this to happen!"

Peter, James, and Sirius were outside the hospital wing while Madam Pomfrey tended to Remus and Sarah. Sirius was desperately guilty, and James was desperately angry. Peter seemed to be in shock.

"You KNOW that Snape suspected Remus was...you know. Are you really so dumb that you couldn't figure out that Snape would try to find out if he was right or not?" James yelled at the unhappy boy.

"I guess I am," Sirius mumbled unhappily. James stared at him stunned, his next words halting at his lips.

"What?" He hadn't expected Sirius to agree with him.

"I guess I am so dumb that I couldn't figure that out. I should have."

"Oh."

"Is Remus going to live?" Peter whimpered.

"I think so, yeah," James sighed. "I mean, he's got super strength. The one we should worry about is Sarah. With the matter of living or not, I mean. She got a really severe injury, and she doesn't have special strength." He glared at Sirius. "You may have cost Remus his life mate. The only person he'll ever love. Ever! He won't love anyone else! If she dies, he's going to be alone the rest of his life!"

"I know, James, I know this already," Sirius moaned. He looked at the other boy, fear, sadness, and guilt in his gaze. James instantly felt guilty for yelling at his friend so much. "You don't think I'm beating myself up about this already? I don't need you to do it again!"

James sighed. "I'm sorry, Sirius. I'm just worried and upset. I mean, Snape knows now!"

"I know," Sirius mumbled.

Madam Pomfrey opened the door to the hospital wing. "You can come in, now," she told them. The boys filed into the room and sat around Sarah and Remus' beds. They both seemed to be sleeping, but they were sort of reaching for something.

"They want to be together," Peter said quietly. He pushed their beds closer together, and the couple's hands touched, then held. Silently, the three boys looked at their friends, wishing there was a way to go back and avoid the pain they had suffered.


	18. A Loss and A Gain

"Mum!" Sarah screamed. Tears streamed down her face as she desperately cast shield charm after shield charm, keeping the Death Eaters at bay. From the corner of her eye, she watched as her mother's body fell to the floor.

The last words her mother had said were to Sarah. When the Death Eaters had come to their house the summer after Moony's pack had formed, Mary Milton had hurried into her daughter's room, waking her and telling her to go, to ask the Lupins for help. Before Sarah could say a word, the Death Eaters had streamed in, and they had begun fighting for the lives. At one point, a Death Eater's mask was knocked off to reveal Bellatrix Lestrange: her second cousin. They were related through their grandparents. Her mother had yelled at Bellatrix, "Why are you attacking us? Is love such a bad thing?"

The Death Eater had cackled, responding, "Only if you're a half breed lover, blood traitor!" Then the green jet of light had hit her mother, and she had fallen.

_Crash!_ Her lamp exploded, her attention snapping back to the fight. She screamed in fear: Bellatrix was right in front of her, leering. In a desperate attempt to get help, Sarah sliced the air with her left hand, using wandless and nonverbal magic to sweep Bellatrix across the room, and then cast the Patronus charm to send a message to Remus.

A Disarming Charm hit her, and her wand flew through the air, landing on the floor to be stomped on by a bulky Death Eater. Using her wandless and nonverbal abilities, Sarah continued to fend her attackers off. Then Bellatrix was in front of her again, Sarah quickly Disarmed her, and then she saw a flash of silver as Bellatrix dragged her knife along the girl's side. Sarah cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, bleeding heavily.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix screamed gleefully, having regained her wand. Sarah screamed, curling up in a futile attempt to end the pain. "Did you love your mummy?" Bellatrix crooned evilly. "Do you want to see her again?"

"Remus!" Sarah screamed desperately, hoping against hope that he had received her message and was coming to help.

"Remus? That whelp Greyback bit who was lucky enough to get into Hogwarts?" A tall, thin Death Eater said in surprise. "Why would she be calling him?"

Bellatrix hissed at him. "I've heard that my dear second cousin here is his life mate. Isn't that right?" She addressed Sarah with her last remark.

Sarah desperately attempted to stand, get away from the torture Bellatrix was dealing out to her. But then the pain increased, and she collapsed to the floor. "Remus!" She screamed again. Then a dark blur and a flash of light entered her field of vision. Bellatrix toppled to the ground, and the pain stopped. As she lost consciousness, Sarah's last sight was of Remus furiously shooting spell after spell at the Death Eaters, who were starting to panic. Then blackness enveloped her, and she knew no more.

XxxxX

Remus paced outside of the ward on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's. After driving the Death Eaters away a week earlier, Remus had sent a Patronus Message to his parents, explaining what had happened at Sarah's house and telling them to Apparate to St. Mungo's once he reached them, grabbed Sarah and her mother, then ran to his parents at full speed. Thirty seconds later, they were entering St. Mungo's, and a Healer was telling them that while Sarah could be saved, her mother was dead. Remus was desperately worried about Sarah's reaction to the news when she woke up; she had always been very close to her mother, since she had only known Mary.

"Excuse me? Is this the ward where Sarah Milton is located?"

Remus turned around to face a large man. The man's nails were long, dirty, and vaguely pointy, while his hair and beard, gray-brown and matted, tangled together along his jawbone. He reminded Remus of a wolf.

"Who are you?" Remus asked the man blankly.

"I'm Sarah's father," he replied. Remus took a step back.

"Fenrir Greyback?" He asked in surprise. His eyes narrowed. "You're the one who bit me."

The other man looked down. "I can see you've figured out quite a lot. I take it you're Remus Lupin?" Remus nodded. "I'm sorry. About biting you. I had to, though. It was the only way to keep Sarah and Mary safe." Greyback looked up at him, remorse, grief, and fear in his eyes. "Apparently, it came to nothing." He held out his hand. "Can you forgive me?"

Remus looked at him, startled. After Sarah had figured out who her father was, and what he had done, Remus had researched as much as he could about the werewolf. Everything he had read said that Greyback was remorseless, unforgiving, and murderous. Now, it seemed that it was all a facade, purely to protect the ones he loved. "Y—yes," he jerked out, still shocked. "And yes, Sarah's in here. But, my parents are in there right now. My dad would probably kill you if he saw you. He's still upset over you biting me, and I don't think he'd wait for you to explain things..."

The door opened, and Remus nearly had a heart attack until his mother's head poked out. "Remus? I think Sarah's waking up. John and I are coming out so you can talk to her." The door closed, and Remus hurriedly put a Disillusionment Charm on Greyback so John Lupin would get sent to Azkaban for murdering the werewolf. His parents came out, and he entered with Sarah's father.

Once inside the ward, he removed the charm on Greyback, and they walked over to Sarah's bed. The injured girl was moving slightly, and presently, her eyes opened.

"Remus..." she whispered, seeing him standing there. He took her hand as he sat in a chair.

"Hello," he said, smiling in relief. "There's someone here for you."

"Who?" she asked. He gestured at Greyback. She stared at the man for a moment, then anger and hurt flared in her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she spat. "After all these years, after my mother and I were attacked, after you bit the man I love—you come to see me?"

Greyback looked even sadder than he had before, if that was possible. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "Not being with you and your mother, learning that you two were attacked, biting Remus...I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough anymore," Sarah whispered, weak after her outburst. "Mum's dead," she choked on a sob, "Remus is a werewolf. I've met you once before...Sorry just isn't enough."

"Staying away, biting Remus—it was to protect you and your mother, Sarah," Greyback told her. "The Dark Lord told me that if I did his bidding, if I would be ruthless for him, he wouldn't attack you two. Apparently...he lied."

"You trusted him to keep his word?" Sarah said in disbelief. "The most evil wizard ever known?"

"It was my only hope, Sarah. Your mother was a blood traitor, and you were part half breed. If I hadn't done what he asked, you two would have been attacked long before now."

Remus' life mate sighed. "Do you truly regret all the evil things you've done? All of the stuff they've said in the news?"

"Yes," said the most wanted werewolf currently living. "I hate having to do it. I even have a school, for the children I bite. Unfortunately, a lot of them are children who I bit on accident after attacking the victim the Dark Lord wanted me to target. I end up running across other children...and I can't help it. So I take them in, give them a safe place to grow as werewolves. It's the best I can do after cursing them." Sadness was clear on his features, and Remus couldn't help but believe him. _Either he's telling the truth, or he's an uncommonly good actor._

Sarah stretched a hand to her father. "I'm so glad to hear that," she said. "Ever since I figured out you were my dad, I've wished that you weren't so evil. Now, I know you were never evil at all. It makes me really happy." Father and daughter smiled at each other, and the man who was one's victim and the other's love looked on, happy that his life mate had formed a good relationship with her father.


	19. Proposal On a Full Moon

"Remus, would you _please_ tell me why we're going to the Shrieking Shack early?" Sarah complained. It was their sixth year at Hogwarts, the first full moon of the school year, and Remus had insisted on coming to the Shack fifteen minutes before moonrise, instead of the usual five minutes.

"You'll see," her boyfriend grinned. Sarah rolled her eyes and muttered something about werewolves always hiding things as he pulled her along through the tunnel. Finally, they entered the Shack, and he led her to the bedroom upstairs where they habitually waited for his transformation.

"_Now_ are you going to tell me?" Sarah griped. Remus grinned at her, and she started to suspect that something was up. She stared at him. "Are you a Death Eater using Polyjuice Potion to kill me?"

He laughed. "Not in the slightest." He sat her on the bed, then sat next to her.

"Over the summer, I talked to your mom—that was before the attack, of course." Sarah's eyes filled with tears, and he gently wiped them away, giving her a hug before continuing. "I also talked to my parents, and then your dad at Mungo's. They all said they were okay with it before we finished school, so I went and got something for you over the summer. Now, you're not depressed, and you're fully healed, so I don't have to deal with you having a seizure from shock and residual trauma." He pulled out a small box and took a deep breath as he knelt in front of her. "Sarah Milton, love of my heart, will you marry me?"

Sarah stared at him in shock. Holding the open box, he looked at her, waiting for an answer. Breathlessly, she whispered, "Yes." Then louder, "Yes!"

In a daze of happiness, she watched as Remus took the ring out of its box and placed it on her finger. Holding it up to the light, she realized it was gold, rather than the traditional silver engagement ring. _Of course. Remus can't touch silver._ The new fiancées smiled at each other for a moment before kissing, tenderly and filled with love.

"Remus?" she breathed as they paused for a breath. "Does this mean we'll be married before we leave school?"

"Probably," Remus said, kissing down her neck. "That's probably going to be a first for Hogwarts: married students."

Sarah smiled as their lips bumped back together. Several more minutes passed before they heard steps downstairs. Parting, they went down the stairs, hand in hand and pressed close together, to see the rest of the Marauders.

"Hey! Why'd you leave so early? I thought we were going to come with you!" James scolded Remus.

"Yeah! We were freaking out, thinking, 'Oh my gosh! We have to find Remus before he transforms in the castle!'" Sirius said, pouting slightly.

"I'm sorry I worried you all," Remus said, grinning, "but I was rather busy proposing to my girlfriend here." The Marauders stopped mid-rant and stared, open-mouthed, at the fiancées.

"P-propose?" Peter queried. "You don't think..."

"You're a little young?" James finished his question.

"Yeah, I mean, you guys are sixteen. Isn't that kinda young to get married?" Sirius added.

"Girls used to get married when they were twelve," Sarah pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but that was back in, like, caveman dinosaur times," Sirius said. Sarah giggled. "What?"

"Cavemen weren't around when dinosaurs were around, and it was more around 400 BC that that happened," Sarah explained, still giggling. Suddenly, Remus shuddered.

"Guys! Full moon night, remember?" he gasped out, gritting his teeth against the pain of the transformation.

"Oops," Peter said as the four Animagi slipped into their animal forms. Lupa pressed against the shuddering, twitching werewolf. Her eyes said, Don't worry. I'm here. Her presence and comfort seemed to relieve the pain slightly for Remus as he became Moony.

As soon as the werewolf finished his transformation, he bounded at Lupa, rolling into her. _Mate! We're mates!_ he said joyfully.

_We always were mates, life mates,_ she said, growling a laugh.

_Yes, but now we're mates, as in together, not just meant for each other._

Lupa nuzzled him. _Do you want to play?_

Moony bounded up the stairs. _Lupa, come!_

She followed him up the stairs to see him settling on the large king bed. _Lupa, here!_ he said to her. She leapt onto the bed, and they snuggled together, a tangle of legs and tails, pressed against each other.

_Is this private? _Padfoot asked, his head poking from the stairwell.

_Out!_ Moony snarled at him.

_I guess so,_ the dog muttered as he went back down the stairs. Moony gently licked Lupa's head.

_Love you_, he murmured. Lupa nuzzled his chin.

_Love you, too,_ she said.

_Leaving!_ Padfoot called up. The sounds of the three animals scrambling through the tunnel slowly faded, and Lupa and Moony snuggled comfortably together, an atmosphere of love surrounding them, despite their ravaged location


	20. Mawwage Is What Bwings Us Togethaw

_Author's Note: Ok, I know that Sarah and Remus are kind of young to be married; I mean, the wedding **is **the summer before their seventh year. However, as life mates, they know that they love each other, and they know personally they want to be married. With Voldemort around, and Sarah's family already targeted, it makes sense for them to get married early. Also, I want to explain the title. If you've ever seen _The Princess Bride_, a really funny movie, there's a wedding in it. The priest is so funny! He has this weird speech thing, so he says, "Mawwage, is what bwings us togethaw, today. Mawwage, dat bwessed awangement, dat dweam within a dweam." That's where the title comes from. Finally, I'd like to thank XxMixedXxLoverXx for reviewing every chapter! I greatly appreciate the insight into your thoughts on my story!_

* * *

><p>Remus waited nervously at the altar set under a tree near the river, the site of his attack so long ago. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his father smoldering with rage. The day before, Sarah had made John make an Unbreakable Vow with her not to harm her father during any part of the nuptials or prevent him in any way from coming. Then, she had informed his parents that her father was Fenrir Greyback. Needless to say, John Lupin was very angry.<p>

There was a collective gasp from the small crowd. His family was there: John and Delilah Lupin, his maternal grandmother, Rose Macindaw, his paternal grandparents, Mariah and Marcus Lupin, and his maternal aunt, Daisy Mason. Sirius was his best man, and James and Peter were groomsmen. Andromeda Tonks née Black, with her husband Ted Tonks, were there as well. Alphard Black was also there. Sirius, Andromeda, and Alphard were the only Blacks that didn't share their family's views.

Remus saw the cause of the gasp: Sarah, looking stunning in a pure white, form-fitting strapless dress that flared slightly at the bottom, was coming up the aisle formed by the benches. Her hair was elegantly loose, floating around her neck and shoulders, and she wore moonstone earrings with gold settings, and a matching necklace and bracelet. Her nails were painted a delicate blue, matching the shine of the moonstones, and she wore pure white flats with blue trim that matched her nails, while she held a bouquet of orchids that matched her nails.

He stared, open-mouthed, until Sirius leaned over and whispered, "You're gaping." Remus snapped his jaw closed with an audible click of his teeth as Sarah walked down the aisle with her father. Murmurs resounded throughout the chapel, and he knew they were about Fenrir.

Fenrir stopped a few steps away from him and walked to the side, sitting on a bench. Sarah continued until she was next to him. Smiling, she grinned as five-year-old Nymphadora Tonks, daughter of Andromeda and Ted, walked up the aisle, playing the roles of both ring bearer and flower girl. Chubby, pink cheeks, bright freckles, and hair that changed from blond, to brown, to red, to black, to pink, and back again.

The minister began the ceremony. Thirty minutes later, he concluded, "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now—" Remus and Sarah Lupin's lips connected before the man could finish his sentence. "kiss the bride," he said anyway, smiling.

As the newly married couple skimmed down the aisle, flowers showered around them, Sarah went to toss her bouquet in the directions of her her maid of honor, Lily, and her bridesmaids, Ariana and Alice, but stopped dead.. She latched onto Remus, shaking with fear.

"Sarah, darling, what's wrong?" he murmured. She pointed a trembling finger towards the outside of the circle of protective charms cast over their wedding place.

Remus and the guests looked in the direction of her finger, and every face paled.

Bellatrix Lestrange was leering at them from behind the barrier.

Behind her, Voldemort stood, impassive.


	21. Wedding Aggression

Fear gripped Sarah like a giant hand. Just a moment ago, joy had filled her like a balloon, and love for her new husband had practically glowed from within her. Now, at the sight of her mother's killer and the murderer's master, she was empty and dull as an old, deflated balloon.

Remus' wand had appeared in his hand, and he pushed himself in front of her. "What are you doing here?" he shouted.

"Just trying to find a friend of mine," Voldemort said silkily. "Dear Greyback, what _are_ you doing here with this...riffraff?"

"Some of this _riffraff_ you speak of is my daughter and members of her family," Fenrir said quietly. "My daughter was the bride. I came to give her away and see her wedded to a cub of mine. A cub you forced me to make, against my morals."

"Your morals weren't as important as your family, were they?" Bellatrix jeered. "And your part of your family got killed anyway!"

Suddenly, Fenrir was outside the protective circle and shooting a curse at Bellatrix. Then he was back, next to Sarah, trying to soothe her.

"Ah!" coughed Bellatrix, doubled over and struggling to breath. A flick of Voldemort's wand, and she stood. With murder in her eyes, she flung herself forward, only to be frozen by the charms. Voldemort flicked his wand again, and she unfroze.

"I'll get you for that!" she spat at Sarah's werewolf father.

"Hush, Bella," Voldemort said lazily. "Fenrir, you know not to attack my Death Eaters. This means punishment."

Fenrir squared his shoulders. "Fine." He walked towards the edge of the circle.

Sarah caught a glimpse of movement. Voldemort signaled to Bellatrix, who discreetly took out her silver knife. Silver.

"No!" she screeched, and she froze her father just before he left the charm circle. Standing in front of him, she told the Dark witch and wizard, "You will not kill my father if I can help it."

"Interesting. You still care for him, despite all his evil deeds, then?" Voldemort said.

"He regrets having to do them," Sarah said boldly. "He does it simply to protect me." She unfroze her father. "Look, Dad, they were going to poison you."

He looked at Bellatrix's knife, and his eyes widened. "My lord, I have always done what you asked, even if it's not for a reason you like. I then attack your right-hand servant once, just once, and you would poison me?" he asked incredulously.

"I would not have let you die. Simply suffer enough to learn a lesson."

Sarah growled like Lupa. In a flash, she had changed forms, attacked Voldemort, returned, and changed back. He gave an involuntary cry of pain, then glared at the Animagus. "You. Will. Pay. For that!" he snarled at her, blood dripping from the deep bite on his leg. Then he and Bellatrix had Disapparated.

"Father, stay with us for a while. Please, he'll poison you!" Sarah begged her father.

"I have to, Sarah. If I don't go back, he won't leave you alone."

She sobbed as she hugged him. "Good luck."

"Thanks," he said as he hugged her back. "Goodbye."

Then he walked out of the protective boundaries and Apparated away. Slowly at first, then quickly, the other guests left, the witches and wizards providing the Muggles Side-Along Apparition to their homes.

"Well, wasn't that a great wedding?" Remus sighed.

"Actually, it was, until the end," Sarah said. "Oh, I hope my dad's okay." She sighed and said, "At least I managed to stick a See Me Charm on him, so I can keep track of him."

They Apparated to their London flat, a wedding gift from Remus' parents. "Well, let's take a look," Remus said.

"Specto Fenrir Greyback," Sarah said, waving her wand. A misty scene appeared before them. "No!" Sarah cried as she made out the figures.

Her father was writhing on a floor, Voldemort standing over him and Bellatrix nearby with her knife, which had blood on it. A large purple gash slowly leaked silvery liquid down Fenrir's face.

Remus hurriedly ended the spell and took Sarah in his arms. "Shhhhh, shh, shh," he whispered, trying to soothe her.

"He poisoned him," she sobbed. "He poisoned him! I knew it!" Remus rubbed her back gently.

"He'll live," he told her. "Remember? Voldemort said he wouldn't kill him."

"Just make him suffer!" she cried. "It's not right!" Her fists clenched.

"Voldemort will pay for this," she whispered, wrapped in Remus' arms. "Bellatrix, too."


	22. Graduation

"Woo! School's over!" Remus danced around with his wife. "Ms. Sarah Lupin, we are free!"

"I thought you liked school!" she teased, smiling.

"Well, yes, I did, but now, the world is open to us!" He waggled his eyebrows meaningfully at her.

"What..." She stopped mid-sentence and blushed. "Remus!"

"What? You don't like that idea?" he inquired shamelessly. "I'm so sorry. I guess we won't."

"No, it's okay. I'm fine with the idea," she hurriedly reassured him. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "What is Dad doing here?"

Remus turned around to see Fenrir Greyback beckon him. "I'll be back," he told Sarah, then he walked over to his father-in-law. "Hello. How are you?" he greeted the man.

Fenrir grimaced. "Better than I've been." Almost unconsciously, he reached toward a long scar down the side of his face. "Sarah put a See Me Charm on me, didn't she?"

"How did you know?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Her face. She looks so worried about me. More than she would be if she didn't know quite how the Dark Lord punished me."

"Oh. Yes, she did. She wanted to keep track of you. If you were in the area, she hoped maybe you could come and visit," Remus explained.

Fenrir grimaced again. "When I was in the area, I wanted to visit. Unfortunately, if I had, I would have gotten in trouble." He sighed. "I guess I should be glad that she never checked the charm when I was nearby."

"Anyway, remember how I told you about my school? For my victims, both accidental and forced?" Fenrir changed the subject quickly, as if getting to the point of the conversation. Remus nodded in reply.

"Well, I was wondering..." The man hesitated, then continued, "would you like to come and work there for me? The cubs...I feel so bad that they can't learn magic. You're a rare case. Even Dumbledore wouldn't let them in, not now anyway, after I've been able to influence them. He doesn't know that I only do it for Sarah. I've heard that you're very good at magic, and Sarah, too. The only problem is, Sarah wouldn't be safe..." He trailed off, then looked at Remus, waiting for a response.

Remus couldn't believe his ears. _Me, a werewolf, and I'm getting a job offer at my graduation! This is amazing!_ "Is it okay if I come take a look first?" he asked.

"Sure," Fenrir responded.

"Great. Also, Sarah might like to come teach, as well. She's actually an unregistered Animagus—a wolf. She could simply switch forms for full moons," he told Fenrir, whose eyes widened at the revelation about his daughter.

"Wow. When did she become one?"

"First week of third year." Remus grinned at Fenrir's dumbfounded expression.

"I guess that instead of having werewolf powers, the magic she's inherited from me goes towards her transfiguration." Seeing Remus' uplifted eyebrows, he explained, "Mary left me messages about Sarah's grades. That and pictures, messages, and the one visit have been our only communication for years."

Sarah said from behind Remus, "What's taking so long, Moony?"

Fenrir looked at Remus, one eyebrow raised. "Nickname," Remus explained. Then he told Sarah, "Your dad's offered me a job at his school. For his cubs. I could teach them magic. You, too. I told him that you're an Animagus, so you would be safe during full moons."

Sarah looked at her father. "I would love to come see your school. Is that okay? Before I decide if I'd like to teach there?"

Fenrir smiled at his daughter. "Of course. I already told Remus he could come see the place."

The threesome smiled at each other. Then, Fenrir said, "Go on, you two. Enjoy your last time at Hogwarts." They grinned at him again, then ran off, hand in hand. If they had looked back, they would have seen Fenrir smiling just a little sadly as he remembered a long ago time when he had waited here for another girl who looked just like his daughter from the back.


	23. Work

"Hmmm," Sarah muttered. "When did he say he would be here, again?" They were waiting at an old bus stop in the abandoned mill town, a week after their graduation. Fenrir Greyback had told them by owl that he would meet them there to take them to his school.

"Two thirty, I believe," Remus responded.

"It's four." They looked at each other.

"It's possible Voldemort forced him to lure us into a trap. I mean, we are good at magic. It wouldn't surprise me if he would try to kill us," Remus said.

"I don't think my father would agree to it. He only does Voldemort's bidding to protect me; if he was told to prepare a trap for me, he would never do it." Sarah gasped. "There he is!"

Fenrir Greyback staggered up to the bus stop, gasping. "Sorry," he wheezed. "Didn't realize it would take so long. Or how far it was."

Sarah patted him on the back. "We don't mind." Remus shook his head in agreement.

Standing straight, breathing back to normal, Fenrir said, "Well, let's go. We've got a ways to walk."

They started back the way Fenrir had gone. After half an hour of walking along the dirt road in the oppressive heat, Sarah stopped, gasping. Remus grinned at her. "Weakling," he teased.

Sarah rolled her eyes and switched to her wolf form. Switching back for a moment, she said, "This ought to make it easier. Wolves typically have better endurance than humans." She grinned, then changed back to Lupa.

Remus grinned at the wolf, petting her head as he said, "Good old Lupa."

Lupa nipped at his hand gently, then springing away, clearly stating, "I'm not old!"

XxxxX

"Ta da!" Fenrir said as he removed the couple's blindfolds. In order to protect the children, he didn't let anyone see how to get there, even people who knew wouldn't tell. He had no way of knowing if they might accidentally slip up, and then there would be a mob trying to kill his cubs.

"Whoa," Remus breathed. He stared at all the faces looking at him, Sarah, and Greyback.

"Alpha!" A little voice cried, and a blur ran straight into Fenrir. The older werewolf grabbed the child and hoisted him into the air.

"Well, hello, Charles. I know you want to play, but I can't right now. We have guests," Fenrir said cheerfully. The boy twisted his head to look at Sarah and Remus curiously. Fenrir set him back on the ground, and Charles sniffed the couple.

"You're like me," he said, looking up at Remus, "and you," he looked at Sarah, "smell like a wolf, but a different wolf than me, and you smell like a human, too."

Sarah and Remus grinned at each other, then Sarah bent down and said, "My husband _is_ like you. He's a werewolf. I'm human, but I'm also an Animagus, which means I can turn into a certain animal. Every Animagus' animal form is different. Can you guess what mine is?"

"Wolf?" the boy asked, tilting his head inquisitively.

"Yes! You're right!" Sarah smiled at the boy. "Would you like to see?" She asked all the children. They nodded their heads vigorously. One moment, the young woman was a human, the next, she had changed into a wolf. She howled in joy as the young werewolves mobbed around her, trying to touch her tail or pet her head. Looking at Remus and Fenrir, she wagged her tail, sweeping it from side to side to say, "They're wonderful!"

XxxxX

"This is their dormitories," Fenrir said as he showed Sarah and Remus a small room in the creaky wooden building. There were four beds in the room. Makeshift canopies had been attached, and the overall setup of the room was reminiscent of Hogwarts. "We try to make it like Hogwarts for them. I feel so bad that they don't get to go, and I want them to be able to have as similar an experience as possible. Unfortunately, there aren't that many werewolves that could and would teach magic, even to their own kind, and it's the same with Animagi." He looked sad, but one of the cubs who were in the room came over and hugged his knees.

"Don't be sad, Alpha. We like it here, and soon we might get to learn magic!" said the little girl. Fenrir smiled at her. His compassion and love for the children was clear to Sarah and Remus, and Sarah thought, _They're like a substitute for me, since he was never able to be a father for me. He lets out his paternal feelings with them._

Remus put his arm around her waist as he said to Fenrir, "This place looks great. I know I'd love to work here." He nudged Sarah. "What about you?"

"Of course!" she said. "The children are so sweet, and I'd love to help." She grinned. "You've done a great thing, here, Dad. These children...they'd be lost without your school."

Fenrir smiled at his daughter's praise. "Thank you, Sarah. I try to help them as much as I can. But," his smile faded, "often all I can think of is that it's my fault they're here in the first place."

"No," Sarah told him firmly. He looked startled. "It is _not_ your fault. It is _Voldemort's_ fault. He's the one who makes you go out during the full moon to attack children. Then, you can't stop yourself from biting others. It's all his fault, not yours."

Fenrir looked at her for a second, then he smiled. "Sarah, you are, without a doubt, one of the most supportive women I've ever met, especially when it comes to werewolves."

Sarah just smiled.

XxxxX

"WHAT?"

Sarah winced. Remus had just finished informing his father that he was going to take a job under the werewolf who had bitten him, and that his job would be to teach magic to the werewolf's other young victims. John Lupin's reaction to the news was not a good sign for Remus' prospects of getting parental approval.

"I'm going to teach magic to Greyback's young victims. They deserve to learn!" Remus told his father, frustration in his voice as his father stared at him in disbelief.

"You're teaching magic to werewolves who are being turned into monsters by that demon?" John yelled. "What are you _thinking_?"

"That they deserve to learn just as much as I did! That they should have the same chance as me! That they aren't being turned into monsters! That the cruelty is just a facade maintained by Greyback to protect Sarah! That Greyback wants to do as much as he can to help the children that he attacks per Voldemort's orders or by accident because he can't control himself after following Voldemort's orders!" Remus burst out, staring fiercely at his father. "That's what I'm thinking!"

John and Delilah Lupin looked at him, astonished. They had clearly never seen their son react in such a way.

Sarah decided to intervene before Remus got out of control. "Remus just wants to help them," she told her in-laws. "Those children are sweet and kind—my father isn't teaching them to kill. He wants to help them have the best in life, the best that they can get, now that they are werewolves. He hates having to bite them, or doing it on accident after following Voldemort's orders." She paused, then added gently, "My father just wants to protect me. That's all. It's the only reason he ever joined Voldemort—to protect his loved ones." John and Delilah stared at her, open-mouthed.

"I—I never thought of that possibility. At least, not the possibility that Greyback simply wanted to protect his loved ones, whoever they are," Delilah said quietly. She nudged John. "Maybe he's not as bad as we thought," she told him softly.

He covered her hand with his as he looked at her for a minute. Then he turned to his son and said, "All right, Remus. We'll let you try this."

Remus smiled. "Thank you," he said. John nodded in recognition.


	24. Birthday

Two months after Graduating from Hogwarts

"Happy birthday!" cried a crowd as Remus brought Sarah into the large meeting room of the werewolf school. His eighteen-year-old wife blinked in surprise, then her face split into a huge grin.

She turned to Remus and said, "I take it that this is why you completely ignored my birthday this morning?"

Remus laughed. "Yes," he said to her, pulling her into a hug. Giving her a kiss, he said, "Come on. Don't you want to see your presents?"

Sarah sat at a table set in the middle of the hall, and Remus sat next to her while James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, Ariana, Alice, Fenrir, the cubs, and the rest of the werewolf pack gathered around her. The first gift Sarah opened was from Lily and James, who were engaged now, and when the wrapping paper had fallen away, there stood a crib, still in its box. Sarah looked at it for a moment and then directed a glare towards her husband.

"You told them?" she asked him reproachfully. The lycanthrope grinned sheepishly.

"Yes. I thought they could use it to get you useful gifts," Remus said. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"They'll only be used for so long," she told him. "After that...who's going to use them?"

"The grandkids," Peter piped up, and then he blushed as everyone looked at him. Remus smiled at him.

"Yeah. The grandkids. That's who'll use them," said Remus. "Now come on, I'm hungry. Finish opening your presents so we can have cake." Sarah complied, laughing. The next gift was from Ariana and Peter, who were going out. It was a supply of diapers and burp rags.

"We'd have gotten blankets, too," Ariana mentioned, "but since we don't know the gender, we don't want to get the wrong color."

Alice's present was a timer. At Sarah's quizzical glance, she explained, "When it starts to cry, turn it to ten minutes. If it's still crying then, go see what's wrong. If not, you can go back to whatever you were doing." She smiled. "Learned that from my mum."

Sirius had supplied a camera and a scrapbook. "Got to keep all those photos somewhere," he said. "You know you'll take a ton of them."

Fenrir and the other werewolves in his school had joined forces to provide Sarah with a beautiful painting of wolves. Sarah gasped as she recognized each wolf. "That's you, Dad, and that's Moony. And there's Charles, and Jonah, and Lucy..."She looked around at the children. "How do you remember it all?"

Charles smiled proudly. "Set up a camera to take pictures so we know what we all look like." Sarah grinned at him. Then she picked up a smaller, rectangular box with a second, square, much smaller lump on top. She unwrapped it to find a small square box on top of a rectangular box.

"Open this one first," Remus said quietly, pointing to the larger box. Sarah picked it up, and, slitting the tape that held it close, lifted the top, then gasped, a note of grief resounding in the breath.

The group crowded around. All they saw was a brown teddy bear in the box, with a hole in its neck and several patches that were becoming rather bare. Yet Sarah clung to Remus, quite clearly trying not to cry. Finally, little Lucy, a newcomer who was just six years old, asked, "Why is she crying about a teddy bear?"

Sarah wiped her eyes before she explained, "It was my mother's, and she gave it to me. But...my mother's dead, now."

The small girl simply said, "Oh."

Sarah reached for the last box. When she had taken off the lid, she gave a gasp, this time of admiration. A gold necklace with a moon, inlaid with a pearl, lay in the box. "Oh, it's beautiful! But who is it from?"

"It's from me," Fenrir said quietly. The wolf Animagus looked at her father.

"But, Dad, this must have cost a ton of money! How did you afford it?"

"Simple. I didn't buy it," Fenrir said. His daughter opened her mouth, an upset look on her face, but he cut her off, continuing, "I already had it." He waited a moment before adding, "It was your mother's. She gave it to me as a token of her love." He reached forward and took hold of the moon. He pulled it to reveal that it was a locket. Two pictures were in it. "The pictures are mine. This is your mum," he pointed to the left side, "and this is you when you were born." He pointed to the right side.

Sarah opened and closed her mouth several times before hugging her father tightly while tears streamed down her cheeks. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you."


	25. Good News

"James! Lily!" Sarah cried. The stag Animagus and his love had been married three months after Sarah's birthday, and they had just gotten back from their three-weeklong honeymoon in mainland Europe. Sarah hugged them both before saying reproachfully, "You left so soon! We didn't even get to say goodbye!"

Lily shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry. We were excited." The red head's eyes twinkled. "Sarah...guess what?"

Sarah gasped. "No way!" She grinned as she hugged her friend. "Congratulations! Actually," she added mischievously, "the other Marauders were betting on when the baby would be from, and Remus bet it would be a honeymoon baby, so Remus and I are going to have...how much, Remus?"

The werewolf chuckled. "Sirius bet a little TOO much, this time. Peter matched it, of course. I was the only smart one; I bet fifteen. But...we'll be getting one hundred pounds."

James whistled in astonishment. "A hundred pounds! Good God!"

"Yep!" Remus said cheerfully. "Sarah and I will have quite a bit of extra money!" He turned and called into the younger Lupins' house in Godric's Hollow, "Hey! Padfoot! Wormtail! Come out, it's Lily and Prongs!"

"Why do they call him Prongs?" Lily asked in an aside to Sarah.

The girl grinned. "He hasn't told you?" Lily shook her head. "James, can I tell Lily why we call you Prongs, or do you want to explain?"

James winced. "Uh, it's probably better if I explain because she'll probably kill me for not telling her otherwise." Then he hurriedly explained, "Um...."

Lily stared at him blankly. "What?" Sarah laughed.

"James, you have to explain in a way that's decipherable!" The blue-eyed girl turned to her green-eyed friend. "Remus is a werewolf, and so, in third year, I became a wolf Animagus so I could help him during full moons. Then, in third year, James, Sirius, and Peter unwittingly copied me for the same reasons. They figured out he was a werewolf in...what was it? Second year?" James nodded. "James is a stag, hence Prongs, like his antlers. Sirius is a large black dog. Padfoot refers to the dog's pads on his feet. And Peter is a rat, hence Wormtail. Remus is Moony because of the full moon, and I'm Lupa like the mother wolf in the Roman legend." Lily stared open-mouthed for a minute. Then she turned to her husband.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She shrieked. "It's just a little important! I'd want to know why you left every night of the full moon!"

James cringed. "I just didn't think about it, Lily! I'm sorry!"

Lily turned on her friend, then. "And you. I thought we were best friends!"

"We are!" Sarah reassured her friend hastily.

"Then why did you never tell me any of this!"

"Calm down!" Sarah demanded. "Why would I tell you when I didn't know how you'd react? You think I'd just tell my friends that my only friend from before school was a werewolf, a hated creature by most of the wizarding world? And when I fell in love with Remus! You think I'd have done it then? And James, Sirius, Peter, and I are not registered! We can't just tell people! We could get in trouble with the Ministry!"

Lily breathed heavily as Sirius and Peter walked towards them. "Hello, Evans!" Sirius called. "I thought I heard your voice!"

"Who didn't hear her voice?" Peter joked. "I think the whole world could hear her shrieks!"

Lily smiled at them. "Hello, boys. James and I have some important news for you." Peter and Sirius exchanged looks, suddenly apprehensive.

"Er...what is it about?" Sirius asked.

"Well...I'm pregnant," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Congratulations!" The two Marauders shouted, smiling partly in relief.

"Can I be godfather?" Sirius begged.

"Of course!" James exclaimed.

"And Sarah, will you be the godmother?" Lily requested.

"Of course," Sarah told her friend, smiling.

Remus cleared his throat. "Ah, Peter? Sirius?" The two men turned to look at him. Remus raised an eyebrow, and they groaned.

"Oh, yeah..."Sirius muttered.

"The bet," Peter mumbled.

Sirius pulled out his moneybag with a sigh and counted out fifty Galleons, but Peter scuffed the toe of his shoe against the ground. "Remus, I don't have fifty Galleons," he admitted.

"Don't worry! You don't have to pay up now..." Peter heaved a sigh of relief. "But you'll have to pay interest," Remus added with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"How much is interest?" Peter asked warily.

"A Galleon an hour," Remus said mock-cheerfully. Sarah slapped his shoulder as Peter's shoulders sagged, and he glared at her. "What? I'm just joking around!"

Peter heaved another sigh of relief.

"But, I still expect you to pay up."

Peter groaned.


	26. New Life

Remus paced anxiously outside the master bedroom of Sarah and his house. Another cry echoed out. "Jeez..."he mumbled. "How long does it take?"

"It shouldn't be too much longer," Lily said with a worried tone in her voice. "Honestly, I don't think it should have taken this long anyway. I would now; my mum was a nurse in the labor and delivery ward. I've been there plenty of times, and it only took this long if there was a problem."

Remus just looked even more worried at this. "Lily, I really don't think that was the best thing to tell Moony," James told his wife in an undertone.

"Oh, well," she replied under her breath.

Suddenly, the wailing cry of a baby came through the door. The Marauders and Sarah's friends all breathed a sigh of relief at the sound. But another cry of pain came through the door. Several more minutes passed, and then a second newborn's wail echoed out. The friends looked at each other in surprise.

"It's twins!" Sirius said joyfully.

"Sarah!" Remus shouted, ignoring Sirius's exclamation as he tried to open the door. It was locked.

"Just give me a moment to get the girl presentable," said the muffled voice of the midwife who had come to help Sarah with her baby—now babies. Finally, the door was unlocked, and the large woman let Remus in. "Family first," she told the other people waiting.

Inside the bedroom, Remus hurried to his life mate's side. "Sarah?" The young woman lay on the bed, unmoving. Remus gulped. "Is she...?" He choked, unable to finish his question. Luckily, the midwife understood.

"No, no, just asleep. It was a difficult birth. Took a lot of the poor girl's strength." At this, she cast a sympathetic look at Sarah. "But, she'll be fine, don't worry. And the babies are quite healthy, too. Going to be stubborn children, I think. Wouldn't turn around the right way. Partly why it took so long and was so hard for her." Another look. "Here's the child." She presented Remus a bundle of blue blankets. "It's a boy." Then she showed him a second bundle, this one pink. "And a girl."

"Oh..."The new father breathed. The tiny face inside was a mix of both him and Sarah. The newborn boy's nose was slightly long, like his, and his eyes were a little small and fit closely against his head, just like Sarah. But his eyes were the same amber as Remus's eyes, while the tufts of hair peeking from under the blankets that surrounded the child's head were the same honey brown as his father's hair.

"He's beautiful," Remus said. A smile lit up the werewolf's face. "Just beautiful." He heard a rustle from the bed, and he turned to see the weak mother looking towards him with weary eyes.

"My babies..." she whispered. "Can I see them?" Remus grinned at her as he walked over. Holding his new son in one arm, he carefully helped Sarah sit up with the other, then gently placed the baby in her arms. She stared at the boy's face, and then she looked up at her husband. "He's lovely," she said softly.

The midwife placed their daughter in Remus's arms. "Don't forget your daughter," she said with a smile.

"She's just as beautiful as her brother," Remus said, grinning. The child was the very image of Sarah's mother: golden hair, rounded nose, hazel eyes, full but slightly large mouth.

Handing her to her mother, he took his son in his arms again. Sarah looked up at him after a moment, her eyes brimming with tears. "She's going to look just like Mum. I know it."

"I think so, too," Remus told her. He picked up the baby girl and headed to the door. The midwife opened it for him, and he announced to his friends, "It's a boy _and_ a girl!" The assembled friends cheered. Then Remus noticed the three newcomers. "Mum! Dad! Fenrir!" He welcomed them happily. "Look! You're grandparents!"

They all smiled. "It would seem that we are," John Lupin told his son.

"Excuse me, I'd like to go see my daughter, if that's okay," Fenrir said quietly, though a large smile was on his face. Remus stepped aside to let him through.

"She's weak," he told the werewolf softly. "It was a long birth, and they both wouldn't turn the right way, which I guess made it harder. But the midwife says she'll be okay."

Fenrir nodded before continuing on to his daughter. Remus could hear them speaking quietly to each other.

"What are you going to name them?" Alice called. She had been married to Frank Longbottom two months before, and she was expecting a child like Lily. It reminded Remus of a comment he'd overheard while visiting in Hogsmeade. McGonagall and Flitwick had been outside the Three Broomsticks, talking about their last graduating class. McGonagall had remarked that all their students were getting married and having children because of the war. _She's probably right_, Remus reflected. Out loud, he said, "Sarah and I had decided that if we had a boy, he'd be named Romulus Fenrir Lupin. If it was a girl, she'd be called Mary Delilah Lupin. Since we have both, we'll use both names!" He grinned as his friends burst into applause again. _Ah, it's great being a dad._

One month later, Remus remembered his thought, and sourly reflected that he had been quite wrong, as, between the twins' screaming at night in turns, he'd gotten about an hour of sleep in a week.


	27. Halloween

"Waaaaaah!" Screamed one of the one-year-olds on the floor of the Lupins' house.

"Aw, did you hit your head?" Ariana crooned, scooping up her daughter. "Did my wittle Kendra hit her head?" Peter chuckled.

"Amazing, what these kids do to educated adults' grammar," he said. "Even the most brilliant professor starts using baby talk with them."

"I'm not that brilliant!" Ariana said, blushing.

"Sure, you are," Peter told his wife.

_Woof!_ Padfoot barked, clearly agreeing with Peter. The young ones on the floor laughed and clapped their hands together in delight.

"Ah, Sirius is so good with kids. You really need to get married, Padfoot!" James addressed the last remark to the large black dog. "You'd be great with your kids."

The dog gave him a look that was very obviously not an agreement with James' words.

"Okay. Guess not." James chuckled.

Lily and James' son, Harry, clasped the bouncing dog's tail in his pudgy, sticky hands and was dragged along the floor for several minutes by the oblivious Animagus. When he finally fell away from the canine, he let out a wail that made his unsuspecting tormentor cringe.

"Hush, my precious," Lily cooed, picking up her black-haired baby. Then she scolded Padfoot, "Would you pay more attention to the kids? Harry could have been seriously injured!"

Padfoot changed into Sirius. "Ah, he's all right," the pureblood said, ruffling Harry's already messy hair. "He'll stop crying in a minute, anyway."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Just be careful around Neville, Padfoot. He scares easily."

"He does not!" Alice said indignantly. Smirking, Sirius walked right in front of Neville, then quickly flashed to Padfoot and back quickly several times. The plump, brown-haired baby squealed and started crying. Alice glared at the black-haired man.

"Don't do that!" she reprimanded him. "And I guess I see your point, Sarah." She comforted her son as he slowly stopped wailing. Soon all the children were back on the floor, crawling around happily.

"Well, we've got to go!" Alice said eventually. "Frank's mum wants us to visit, and she's a terror when she's not listened to." The others grinned as they said goodbye. "We really need to get home, too," Peter admitted. "Ariana, you go on and head home. I have to go by work to pick up a few things."

"Okay," Ariana said as she wrestled Kendra into her coat.

"See ya!" Sirius said cheerfully, and he disappeared out the door.

Then the Potters were the only visitors left. "It's time to go home," James said. "Come on, Lily." They left, and the Lupins were left in their comfortable home in Godric's Hollow.

A few hours later, a voice called, "Trick or treat!" Sarah went to the door. She looked out the peephole, and screamed.

Bellatrix LeStrange was on their doorstep.


	28. Tragedy

"Where is he?" Remus heard a voice say from outside. It sounded like the door was closed. He wondered why Sarah opened the door to give the kid candy, and why the kid was asking where some man or boy was, and with such a dangerous tone, too, but then he froze in realization. _That's Bellatrix LeStrange's voice!_

Remus hurtled into the front hall. Sarah was shaking at the door, which was still closed. Bellatrix shrieked through the wood, "Where is he? I know you're friends with those Potters! You live right next to them! Now, WHERE IS THE DARK LORD?"

"Why is she trying to find Voldemort? And what do Lily and James have to do with anything?" Remus muttered. Sarah suddenly rushed to the living room. Remus followed her to see her standing at the window, looking out at the dark night.

"Remus!" She sobbed. Remus looked out the window to see a smoking ruin of his friends' house. He could see a foot, near where the entrance hall had been. It wasn't moving.

"Stay with the babies!" He ordered, and he raced back to the front hall. Readying his wand, he pulled the door open and Stunned Bellatrix so hard she hurtled backwards twenty feet. He bound her and removed her knife and wand before racing towards his friends' house.

He started to search the ruins, but he quickly discovered James' body in the entrance hall. He looked for his dead friend's wand, but it wasn't near the body. Then he spotted it in the former living room. He noticed a flash of green in his own living room and was half paralyzed with terror for his family until Sarah rushed towards him. "I took the twins to your parents' house," she told him. "I just couldn't sit there." Then she noticed James and let out a sob.

"Oh, Prongs," she moaned. "He doesn't even have his wand!" She hurried over in the direction of the former nursery. Remus heard a wail as she reached the location.

"Lily! No!"

He went over to see Lily's limp form. Then he noticed Sarah was staring into the darkness. "Stay here," she told him. "You shouldn't come over." Remus watched, confused, as she walked partway into the gloom. Just a shadowy shape, he saw her speak with a second shadow. He registered that rather masculine sobs seemed to be emanating from the same direction. _Who is it?_

He looked on as Sarah tried to comfort the second figure, who fell to its knees, clearly extremely upset about something. Straining his ears, his werewolf hearing picked up the words, "Lily—asked the Dark Lord to spare her—I thought he would keep his promise—"His eyes widened as he recognized the voice.

"Sniv—Severus?" He muttered. "Why is he upset about Lily? He called her a Mudblood, after all, even if they were friends for a while." A flash of light marked the Apparition of Snape, and Sarah came back towards him. "What was Snape doing here, and why was he so upset? And, why was he talking about Lily and asking Voldemort to spare her?"

Sarah gazed at him. "I'm sorry, Remus. I can't tell you. It's his secret, not mine. I just figured it out back in school. I knew he would be struggling right now, and we're friends, even now. Sometimes, people aren't everything you think they are. I learned that with my dad. It's the same for Severus."

"What secret would he have that you can't tell me?" Remus queried skeptically.

"It's something like your lycanthropy at school," Sarah told him. "I won't tell anyone because it's not my secret to tell. Besides, I don't think he wants anyone to know. I believe that only Dumbledore, Severus, and I know it."

"So, you're not telling me?" Remus asked.

"Nope."

"Okay."

XxxxX

"But Dumbledore! Please!" Sarah begged the elderly wizard. "I know Lily's sister. And her brother-in-law. They're horrible!"

"Petunia Dursley is related to Harry by blood. There is ancient magic that will protect Harry from Lord Voldemort while he lives in his aunt's home, at least until he comes of age. He must be there," Dumbledore said impassively. "However, that is no reason for you not to move near them. In fact, that would be a good thing. Then, there will be people who care for him nearby."

"Then we'll go there. Sirius, and Peter and Ariana, too," Remus said. Dumbledore hesitated.

"You haven't read the Daily Prophet today, have you?" He asked heavily.

"No," Sarah said, bewildered.

"Sirius Black was a traitor. He was Lily and James' Secret Keeper. He gave them away to Voldemort, and when Peter Pettigrew confronted him this morning, he killed Peter and twelve Muggles with a spell that blew up half the street."

The Lupins stared at Dumbledore, aghast.

"No! Padfoot would never do that!" Remus exclaimed. "Never!"

"All the evidence points to him as the culprit."

"Then, just us and Ariana, I guess," Sarah mumbled.

"Ariana is staying with her father here in Hogsmeade. She is also extremely upset over the loss of her husband. Her daughter has lost his father, and she is expecting a second child, as well." Dumbledore shook his head. "I am afraid you will be on your own in Little Whinging."

Sarah and Remus shared a look. "Okay. We're doing it."


	29. Harry Potter

_**TEN YEARS LATER**_

"Hello, Harry," Sarah called over the fence between the yards. "How are you doing? Dudley been beating you up again or something?"

"Nah," said the small, skinny, black-haired boy who looked just like his father.

_Except for his eyes. His eyes are just like Lily's, like gleaming emeralds, _Sarah thought.

"But, it's 'Dudders' birthday today," he said in disgust.

"How many presents is it this time?" Sarah asked in amusement.

"Thirty-seven, but he's going to be getting two more while they're out," the boy said, shaking his head. "And I'm lucky if I even get a song from them for _my_ birthday."

"We have a party for you, though," Sarah said. "And give you presents, too."

"Yeah." Harry smiled at her. "You and Remus are more like my parents than the Dursleys are. And they're related to my mum!"

"We were friends of your parents," Remus commented. "Good friends."

"Really?" The orphan's eyes lit up. "Will you tell me about them?"

"Come on over. We'll tell you anything," Sarah said, then corrected herself. "Well, almost anything. Some information is better left unspoken." She exchanged a glance with Remus. They hated Dumbledore's instruction to not tell Harry about his true background, his magical background. However, Dumbledore had told them that it was better for Harry not to know about his fame until he went to Hogwarts. Otherwise, it could go to his head, though Sarah saw no possibility of that happening.

"Can't," Harry said sourly. "Uncle Vernon won't let me come over anymore. Says you could have bad influences on me."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Looks like Petunia finally recognized me," she whispered to Remus. "Took her long enough."

Just then, Vernon Dursley, a fat walrus of a man, came out with his horsey wife, Petunia, and his whale-sized son, Dudley. "Come on, boy. You're going with us. Mrs. Figg broke her leg." He glared at his nephew as he spoke.

"We'll keep him if you like," Sarah offered. She hated depriving Harry of the chance to go to the zoo, but she knew that he would probably perform accidental magic in his excitement and give the Dursleys cause to punish him in some way.

"No. He's coming with us, as you've got enough children of your own," Petunia said curtly. "But thank you for your offer."

Sarah knew that the thanks was fake. She shrugged. "Okay." Then she watched Harry get in the car, and Vernon drove off.

XxxxX

The Lupins didn't see Harry for several weeks after that, except for when the Dursleys got back home that day and when Harry came from and went to school.

Finally, during the summer holidays, Harry came into their house.

"Will you still tell me about my parents?" He asked.

"Of course," Sarah said gently. "What do you want to know?"

"What did they look like? How did you know them? How did they die? Where did we live? What were they like? What—?"

"Whoa!" Sarah laughed. "I can't answer all those questions at once! Just hang on, I'll get to them eventually." She paused, then added, "Wait here for a moment."

She went to the master bedroom and retrieved a photo book, one with Muggle pictures. _Thank goodness that Lily insisted on both Muggle and wizard copies of all their photos so she could show her Muggle family!_

She came back to the living room and sat next to Harry on the couch. Opening the album, she pointed at a picture of Lily and James. It was their wedding picture. "This is Lily," she said as she pointed at her late, red-haired friend. "She was a very nice woman who was loyal to her friends and also very stubborn. Your father had a very difficult time trying to get her to go on a date with him. They were seventeen when he finally succeeded in taking her out after falling for her when they first met at age eleven. When we all met, actually. Me, Remus, your parents, and a few other friends, one of whom is dead, the second in prison, and the third teaching in a school. Actually, Lily and I were the only ones of the group to be the teacher's friend, and Lily and this friend broke up when we were fifteen. I still correspond with him occasionally, but not often."

"Who's that?" Harry asked, pointing at Sirius. Sarah felt her throat clench.

"Sirius Black. He was the best man at your parents' wedding, and he was your father's best friend. He's currently in jail," she said.

"Oh."

"Remus and I met your parents when we were all going to a boarding school. We had to travel on a train, and it's where that teacher works."

She paused, trying to figure out how to answer his next question. "Your parents died...when...a...serial killer attacked them. He killed your parents, but for some reason, he disappeared when he tried to kill you. Your scar," she pointed towards the pale lightning bolt on his forehead, "is from his attempt on your life."

"Why would he disappear after _trying_ to kill me? And why couldn't he finish killing me?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Sarah admitted. "Nobody does. But you lived in a town called Godric's Hollow. We lived there, too, but when your parents died and you came here, we followed. I knew the Dursleys, even then, and I knew you would need someone to provide love for you."

She paused again, trying to remember his next question. "Ah, and you asked what they were like. Well, your father...he was a prankster in school. Him and Sirius Black caused all kinds of trouble in school. Drove the teachers crazy. He was a bit proud at first, but he was from a richer family, so it was normal for him. He deflated his head a bit, after a while, though. He was great friends with Remus, Sirius, and the dead friend I mentioned earlier. His name was Peter Pettigrew. He wasn't as good in school as the rest of us, but he was a good friend. A...minion...of the serial killer who killed your parents killed Peter. Blew up Peter and half the street behind Peter. Killed a dozen people, not counting Peter. The minion was caught, though, and he was put in jail."

Her voice trembled slightly as she remembered the events of that day. November the first was unanimously left as a day of grief by the Lupin adults. They had discovered the loss of two great friends in the early hours of that day, and then lost two more great friends that afternoon.

"Sarah?" Remus called from the front hall

"In here!" She replied. She noticed the quaver in her voice and knew that Remus would instantly be worried about her. "Harry came over to hear about his parents," she informed her husband as he came into the living room.

"Oh, okay," Remus murmured. She knew that he would understand it as the reason for the quaver.

"Hi, Remus!" Harry said cheerfully. Then, a bellow came from the direction of the Dursleys' house. "Aw! I have to go..."He mumbled.

"Bye, Harry," Sarah said as he left. When he had gone out the door, she stood and leaned against her husband.

"I want to help him know about his parents, but it's so hard, reliving the past," she whispered. "I miss them so much. Even Sirius; at least, the Sirius we knew."

"I know," Remus said softly. "I know."


	30. The Letters

_Flip! _The mail slot opened as the mailman slid the mail in.

"Rom, will you get the mail, please?" Remus called from the master bedroom.

"Okay, Dad!" His eleven-year-old son called back.

Remus absentmindedly listened as the boy walked down the hall and started flipping through the envelopes. Then he heard a yell. He rushed out of his room, fearing that there had been a bomb or something, to find Romulus bouncing in a circle.

"I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS! I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS!" The boy shouted in delight. Remus suppressed a grin.

"Congratulations, Rom," he said. He quickly flipped through the rest of the mail that his son had handed to him and, spotting another Hogwarts envelope, called down the hall, "Mary? You might want to look at the mail!"

A squeal exploded from his daughters' room. Mary raced out, her younger sister, Lily, on her heels. The girl had been born just a year after that horrible day so long ago. Remus and Sarah were simply thankful that their nine-year-old daughter hadn't been born on November first, mixing the day of grief with the day of joy for their daughter.

Mary skidded on the mat in the hall and bounced in front of her father. "Can I see it? Can I see it? Can I see it?" She begged. Remus grinned down at her.

"Here it is," he said. Sarah came out into the hall with a smile on her face.

"So the letters finally came," she said. "Do you remember how excited you were, Remus? For a while, we had no idea if you'd be able to go!"

Lily looked up. "Why wouldn't Daddy have been able to go to Hogwarts, Mama?"

"Werewolves are very dangerous to other people on the full moon," Sarah explained. "Anyone but their life mate—the person they love—and their children—the children that they are related to by blood, not just by paperwork."

"Oh," the girl said, looking at her sister's letter.

The eleven-year-olds excitedly bounced around. "Can we go ask Harry if he got his letter?" They begged. "He's a wizard, right?"

"Yes, he is, but he didn't know until now," Remus told them. "And that's if the Dursleys let him have his letter."

"Why wouldn't he know until now?" Mary asked, confusion on her face.

"The Dursleys don't like magic. They know about it since Harry's mother, who was a witch, was Ms. Dursley's sister. But they don't like it, so they may not have told Harry," Sarah said.

There was a knock on the door. "Sarah!" Came Harry's voice.

"Go put your letters in our room!" The woman hissed to the children. "We need to keep the lists safe so we can find them when we go to get your school things." Romulus and Mary obeyed, Lily tagging along behind. Sarah opened the door.

"Hi, Sarah." Harry's voice was dull.

"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, worry creeping into her voice.

"I got a letter today, but the Dursleys took it. They burned it, I think."

Remus exchanged a glance with his wife. They had been right about the Dursleys. "You'll get it eventually, I bet," Sarah reassured the boy.

He shrugged. "If you say so."

They spent the morning talking about Harry's parents. There were many stories to tell, and though it made both Remus and Sarah's hearts ache with the memories, it felt good to talk about it.

"The first time your parents went out, it was because of a bet," Remus told the entranced eleven-year-old. "If James stayed out of detention for a month, they would go on a date in the nearby village."

"The teachers tormented the poor boy," Sarah laughed. "They kept leaving their offices open and empty for long periods of time, things would be left out...it was hilarious! I felt so bad for James!"

"But your father succeeded! And they made another bet; James had to get all his grades up to 'E', Exceeds Expectations. And he succeeded in that, too."

"Then Lily went out on a third date—no bet involved!" Sarah said. "That was when she finally let her pride give in to her feelings."

"Severus wasn't happy about it at all," Remus remarked.

"No. No, he wasn't," Sarah said in an odd tone. "But Harry doesn't know who Severus is."

"Oh. Sorry, Harry," Remus told the boy. "Severus was a fellow student in our year. Different House, though."

"What's a House?" Harry asked.

"It's just a group of people from all the years; there were four Houses in the school."

"Oh."

An angry bellow came from outside. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I have to go. Uncle Vernon wants me for something." He grimaced as he left.

Several days later, during which Harry had not once been outside, much less come to their house, Remus and Sarah watched out their bedroom window as the Dursleys' car drove off, the Dursleys, Harry, and their luggage in it.

"I wonder where they're going," Sarah mused.

A few days later, it was Harry's birthday, and the Dursleys weren't back. Sarah paced in the kitchen as Remus wrote a letter to Albus.

An owl fluttered in and offered Sarah a letter. When the woman had untied the letter, the bird flew off. Sarah opened the envelope and, pulling it out, unfolded the letter.

She quickly scanned it and sighed with relief. "Hagrid found the Dursleys, gave Harry his letter, and is taking Harry to Diagon Alley." She looked up at her husband from the chair she had sat in while reading her letter. "We still need to get Romulus and Mary their school things. We might as well meet up with Hagrid." Remus grinned and nodded.


	31. School

Sarah scanned the crowd for the tenth time as she stood with her husband and children outside the Leaky Cauldron. "Where are they?" She muttered.

"Ah, you know Hagrid. He's probably gotten stuck in the ticket barriers," Remus responded cheerfully.

"You know, you could be right." They smiled at each other, and then Sarah spotted a familiar bulk. "Hagrid!" She called.

The half-giant looked up, spotted Sarah and Remus, and grinned. "Well, if it isn't the student couple!" He replied. Sarah smiled. It seemed like that was how school staff would always know them. The first students to be married while still in school.

"We're not exactly students anymore!" She teased the huge man as he reached her. Harry was next to him, hardly noticeable next to his escort's bulk. "Hey, Harry!" She greeted him.

The boy's eyes widened. "Since you guys went to school with my parents, that must mean you're—"

His words were cut off as Remus clamped a hand over his mouth. "Let's not mention that out loud over here," he advised. "But, yes, you are correct. You're going to get to go to school with Rom and Mary, too. Lily, as well, when she's old enough."

Harry's green eyes gleamed with excitement above the werewolf's hand.

"Come on, Moony," Sarah laughed, "let's go inside."

The group entered the Leaky Cauldron, and Tom the bartender cheerfully called to Hagrid, "The usual, Hagrid?"

Hagrid clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder, nearly knocking the boy over, as he said, "Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business."

"Good Lord," whispered Tom, peering at the black-haired eleven-year-old, "is this—can it be—?"

The Leaky Cauldron was frozen, every head turned towards Harry, who appeared to be wishing he could sink into the ground.

"Bless my soul, Harry Potter...what an honor," the bartender said. Next moment, every customer there was surrounding Harry, trying to shake his hand.

After meeting the new Defense Against the Art teacher, one Quirrell, who didn't seem like he was the best person for the job, the group managed to get to the entrance to Diagon Alley. Hagrid opened the wall, and Harry gasped in wonder. The Lupin children had occasionally been to Diagon Alley when Sarah went to buy potion ingredients for the Wolfsbane potion, a must when Remus lived in a suburb, but they, too, looked around eagerly as the strange-looking group headed towards Gringotts.

They came back out into the sun after they had all been to their vaults, Hagrid retrieving a small, paper-wrapped lump from his otherwise empty destination while Harry and the Lupins grabbed money for shopping. Hagrid, back on the surface, headed to the Leaky Cauldron for a pick-me-up—Sarah had noticed that the Gringotts carts made Hagrid nauseous—while the Lupins and Harry went off to buy the children's school supplies.

First, they headed to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. A blond boy with pale skin and a pointed face was there, being fitted by another witch. As Madame Malkin set to work, fitting robes for Harry, the blond boy asked Harry questions that clearly confused, bothered, or annoyed him. Over the course of the mostly one-sided conversation, Sarah was strongly reminded of Dudley by the blond boy. Finally, all three students-to-be were done with their robes, which were duly bought, and the group trooped out to meet Hagrid, who was waiting for them by the door with ice cream for everyone. They ate the delicious ice cream before continuing on their way.

Finally, all the three eleven-year-olds needed were wands. Hagrid added, "And yer birthday present," at which Harry blushed, saying that it wasn't necessary. Hagrid stubbornly insisted on buying Harry an owl, while the Lupins went off during Harry's pet search to buy the boy a pile of Chocolate Frogs (Remus' insistence) and _Quidditch Through The Ages_, which Remus and Sarah agreed would be perfect for James Potter's son. Then they all went to Ollivanders, the wand shop.

Romulus went first. After several wands, he finally found a beautiful ten-inch mahogany wand with a dragon heartstring core that was good for transfiguration. Sarah beamed when she heard about it being good for transfiguration; she had hoped that at least one of her children would receive her gift for transfiguration. Mary was next, chosen by a springy ebony wand that was eight and a half inches and had a core of unicorn hair. Finally, it was Harry's turn. Slowly, the pile of discarded wands grew in front of him. At last, he picked up a holly wand that was "nice and supple," eleven inches, and contained a core of phoenix feather that Ollivander soon revealed made Harry's new wand a brother to Voldemort's.

As they made their way home, Sarah whispered to her husband, "We need to talk, but not now. Later." He nodded imperceptibly. Once they reached home, they sat in their bedroom.

"His wand...it's a twin to Voldemort's. It must mean something. After all, wandmakers always say that—"

"The wand chooses the wizard," Remus finished Sarah's sentence. "I know. I really wonder if maybe, just maybe, he'll help us out." Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Oh, come on, Sarah. People are still afraid to say his name, for heaven's sake. If Harry is really destined to do great things, then maybe he can fix the damage Voldemort left behind."

"Voldemort was destined for great things, too, though," Sarah reminded him. She hated being the pessimistic one, but she wanted to include all possibilities in their conversation.

Remus simply laughed. "I doubt Harry's going to turn out evil like Voldemort. I mean, Harry's parents, us—"

"And yet, there's Sirius, Severus, and many others," Sarah sighed.

Remus knitted his eyebrows. "What does Sniv-Severus have to do with Harry?"

Sarah stifled a retort for Remus' near name-calling, knowing that seven years of James, Sirius, and Peter had ingrained the name into Remus as Severus' name. "Well, Severus and Lily used to be good friends. That's all," she said, careful not to slip and give away her friend's secret. Remus nodded absentmindedly, and Sarah let out a small breath she hadn't known she was holding.

XxxxX

"I'll see you at Christmas, Rom, Mary," Sarah said as she hugged her son and daughter. The Lupins and Harry were at Platform Nine and Three Quarters, the scarlet steam engine of the Hogwarts Express gleaming through the smoke that covered the platform. Sarah turned to Harry. "I'm sorry about the trouble getting on the platform," she apologized. "I think the Dursleys were trying to punish you for being a wizard or something. Either way, they made sure to leave before we were ready."

Harry grinned. "Ah, it's fine. Maybe I'll become friends with the youngest Weasley student. That would be nice." Sarah smiled at him.

"Now, off you go, guys," she said. "Hurry, the train will leave soon." The three eleven-year-olds clambered onto the train. Leaning out the window of their compartment, they waved as the train slowly chugged out of the station. "Goodbye!" Sarah called as the train moved out of sight. It disappeared, and Sarah leaned on her husband. "Oh, I'm going to miss them," she mumbled. Remus stroked her hair.

"I am, too," he whispered.


	32. Old Friends

"Oh, Sarah!" Remus called in a singsong voice, grinning widely. "Guess what?"

"What?" she asked him as she came from the kitchen, drying a pan.

"I said guess." His teenage playfulness was making an appearance, which Remus knew would tell Sarah that this really was good news.

"You, uh…you've found a cure for lycanthropy," she tried. Remus laughed.

"If only!"

"Hmmm," she mumbled. "Harry's Aunt Marge is gone."

"Sadly, no."

"You got a job?" she finally suggested.

"Yes!" Remus grinned and waved a letter around. Sarah snatched it out of his hand and looked over it. A few minutes later, she looked up, smiling.

"Oh, Remus, this is great! Defense against the Dark Arts! You always loved that class." She hugged him. "I'll make something special for dinner tonight."

A few hours later, they were eating dinner when they heard yells and screams coming from the Dursleys' house. Sarah, frowning, looked out the window, gasped, and then ran outside. Remus followed.

"Sarah, what's—" Then he saw the woman in the sky, blown up like a balloon. He squinted and realized it was Marge Dursley. "It's the aunt," he muttered.

"Harry's going to be in trouble now," Sarah whispered. "With both the Ministry _and_ the Dursleys."

"Come on. Let's go finish dinner," Remus muttered. Sarah nodded.

"Dad, what's going on?" Lily asked.

"Harry let his temper get the better of him," the werewolf sighed. "Now Marge Dursley is blown up like a balloon, flying over the rooftops."

Rom collapsed in a fit of laughter, but Mary frowned. "He's in trouble, now isn't he?" she asked. "With the Ministry and the Dursleys?"

"He will be," Sarah said.

Then raised voices came from the Dursleys' house again. Sarah looked out to see Harry rushing down the street with his trunk. "Oh, no, not now," she moaned. Harry didn't know, but Sirius Black was loose. He had escaped from Azkaban, and that did not bode well for Harry.

Sarah began to rush out into the dark night, but Remus grabbed her arm.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Harry's running away!" she whispered. Remus groaned.

"We have to find him."

"Mom? Dad? What's wrong?" The two adults turned to see their children standing in front of them.

"Harry must have gotten in a fight with the Dursleys; he's running away. We're going to go look for him," Remus told them.

Lily grabbed his arm. "Don't leave us alone. Please, Daddy."

Remus looked at the eleven-year-old. "All right," he said. "I'll stay here while Mom looks for Harry." Sarah nodded and ran outside.

XxxxX

Sarah switched to Lupa under the cover of some bushes, then began following Harry's scent. He had been running a lot, so he was far out of sight now.

Finally, she saw him. She hurried into some bushes near him to switch back to Sarah but bumped into someone she certainly didn't want to be anywhere near the place.

He was standing next to the bench across from where Harry currently sat. He was staring at the boy, who suddenly looked straight at the black dog. Harry stumbled back, tripped over his trunk, and—

Bright lights flooded the road, and a purple triple-deck bus appeared. _The Knight Bus,_ Lupa thought, relieved. Harry ended up leaving on the bus. Lupa could only hope he would be okay, but in the meantime, she decided to confront Sirius Black. However, before she could figure out what to say, Padfoot spoke.

"_I know you think I'm a murderer, but please, just listen to me," _ he said.

"_Why should I? It's your fault Lily and James are dead and their son is stuck with those horrid relatives of his!"_

"_I didn't betray them! I swear!"_

"_All the proof points to you!"_ Lupa snarled.

"_It was Peter! He framed me!"_

"_You killed Peter!"_

"_I was going to," _Padfoot growled. _"I knew it had to be that rat. Instead, he yelled for the whole street to hear something about me betraying Lily and James, blew up the street behind, cut off his finger, turned into Wormtail, and scurried into the sewers. Except a lot faster than I said it."_

"_How can I believe you?"_ Lupa snorted.

"_You can't."_ Padfoot's eyes were suddenly filled with sadness. _"I don't have any way of truly proving it to you, not until I get the rat. But please, just think about it. Please."_

Lupa stared at him, then huffed and went home, leaving the black dog staring at her forlornly.


End file.
